


Ancient Ice, New Flames

by AmazingAwesomesauce



Category: Dead Space
Genre: Anal, Baby It's Cold Outside, Because Necromorphs Suck, Blowjobs, Carver Really Loves Isaac's Hole, Dismemberment, Fingering, Hallucinations, M/M, Original Characters Fuck Each Other, Overcoming Traumatic Past, Post-Dead Space 3, Rough fucking, Slow Realization of Love, like...a lot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-10
Updated: 2015-01-29
Packaged: 2018-02-08 07:28:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1932033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmazingAwesomesauce/pseuds/AmazingAwesomesauce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the moon crashed into the planet, the pair find themselves oddly still alive. So they go on a quest to find answers to this question, but first things first: getting off of the frozen shithole and getting back to Earth. Also, what are Carver's new dreams trying to tell him? Isaac/John, OC/OC. Tell me what you think about it and give me suggestions on where to go next. [Originally uploaded on FanFiction.net]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Consciousness

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there, AO3! My name is John or, as most people know me by, AmazingAwesomesauce. I am from FanFiction.net and currently have all of my stories that I have written so far on that site under the same username. I signed up for an account here after I explored this site a bit and found that there were a lot more options for authors and stuff like that, so as I was very interested, and decided to grab an account here and upload them here so I could reach as many people as possible. I'd like to think of it as me creating games, and I was only releasing on Nintendo's systems since 2011, then I decided to go multi-platform and release games on Sony's systems as well. :)
> 
> I hope that all of you enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed making them, and please tell me if I need to change anything or if you have a suggestion about things that I can take into account. Thank you!

* * *

The howl of the wind. The freezing bite of the cold snow. The white stretched as far as the eye could see; the blinding brightness dominating the frosty barren wastelands. The cloudy sky shining bright red, tinting the planet underneath with a soft pink hue. The dark moon that once orbited the planet now crushed into it, sending icy debris into the dark void above. Staring at it all would make it seem as if the glorious moment was frozen in time, (no pun intended). Its beautiful destruction littering the landscape as it slowly continued to tear a chunk into the ancient ice cube.

Contrasting against the howling white powder, a dark human figure laid in the snow; a blinking red light on their back with bold white letters next to it, spelling out the name "Carver", and unconsciousness plausible due to their stillness. Eventually, the figure started to move and the person groaned. The man sat up, looked around at the snowflakes around him and then clutched his head; a red glow emitting from his helmet, illuminating the gloved hands pressed up against it.

"Fuck..."

With the distaste of living evident in his voice, he stood up and immediately clutched his side, grunting in pain. He removed his hand to reveal a fresh gash in his black and red suit, revealing the cut epidermis underneath. He wasn't losing too much blood, but he had to find shelter soon or else he would freeze. He covered the wound with his hand once again then tried to open his helmet to regain his bearings.

" _Helmet Malfunction._ "

"Well, that's just great," he said sarcastically.

He turned around and saw an overwhelming amount of destruction. He speculated that it might have been caused by the moon crashing into the planet. He noticed that rather large chunks of the once triumphant moon breaking off into space. This would've looked beautiful, but he remembers what happened there, and does not want to relive those horrible memories.

Sighing, he started to limp into the storm behind him, covering his face with his left hand and wanting nothing more than putting as much distance between that disastrous sight and himself as possible. He almost lost balance many times, yet he trekked through the wilderness blindly in hopes of finding a nice, warm sanctuary.

After what seemed like forever, he finds another body laying face down in the snow. He could barely see the thin, blinking red line on the other's RIG.

"Isaac?" Carver asked to no one in particular, but when the realization that his partner-in-crime was lying in the snow, unconscious like he had been, he ran towards him. "Isaac!"

This turned out not to be his brightest idea due to the fact that he cried out and doubled over in pain when his wound was exposed; he fell to the ground heavily, catching himself with his left hand and clutching the gash with his right.

"Shit," he cursed and he inched closer and closer to his friend. He placed his right hand on his back and tried to shake him awake. "I-Isaac? Isaac, you still kickin'?"

No response.

He then proceeds to sit up on his knees and pressed a couple of buttons on his left arm.

"Check Isaac Clarke's vitals," he commanded and placed the same hand over Isaac's body.

" _RIG at 5 percent,_ " his RIG said back to him. " _Critical condition. Must get to proper shelter before body temperature drops below zero degrees Celsius._ "

He then looks up and all he sees is white. It looked like he wouldn't be able to reach a service room in time.

"Scan the area for any warm housing," he said again while he looked at his friend closer. He noticed that Isaac also had a gash but it's on the entire left side of his core, and is a lot larger, deeper and is gushing more blood than his is. He really needs to get out of this storm...and quick.

" _Scan complete,_ " his RIG told him. " _An old Sovereign Colonies service bunker is located approximately one kilometer from your location._ "

Carver leaned over Isaac, rolled him over, and picked him up, placing his right arm behind his knees and the left behind his neck. He slowly, but surely, stood up, shaking a bit with each passing second. Once he was upright, he had to give his knees a moment to get accustomed to the weight, but once it past, he confirmed his destination.

"Set waypoint."

" _Waypoint set,_ " the RIG replied. " _I will give you updates on your distance periodically._ "

He turned his hand upside down for a second to use his locator, and then gripped the back of Isaac's head. He glanced down at Clarke's helmet for a moment, at the blue rays of light emitting from it, and set on forward into the storm.

* * *

" _Body temperature at sixteen point three degrees Celsius,_ " the RIG notified, but it still didn't help the current situation.

"F-f-f-f-uuucckk..." the male shivered. His instinct told him that body heat helps in this situation, so he tried to hug Isaac a bit closer to his chest to try and warm each other up, but failed to realize that the suits are too thick for that to be effective.

" _Destination at 100 meters,_ " the RIG notified once again, and when it said that, Carver finally saw a red building in the distance.

"Almost...there...hang on...Isaac..." he said to his unconscious friend, then yelped when a strong cluster of wind grazed upon his own wound. "Ah...f-fucking...shit...!"

Carver's heart was pounding hard fast due to the exertion Isaac's weight had put upon him and his legs started to wobble a lot in the process, but through the howling winds and his strained breaths, he heard his friend say something...

"...C-Carver..." Isaac said, unconsciously.

This made said person stop in his tracks.

"W-what? Isaac? Are you th-th-there?"

The other did not respond..

" _Body temperature at ten point five degrees Celsius._ " his RIG notified. " _Seek shelter immediately._ "

"Ss-s-shit!" Carver yelled. "O-o-okay, Isaac...h-hold..on..."

He tightened his grip on Clarke's body and went into a sprint. The red steel before him coming closer and closer; bigger and bigger until he finally reached it's walls. He went up to the gray door, lightly placed Isaac's lower half down onto the snow and used his TK to turn the crank on the bulkhead door.

" _Body temperature at five point four degrees Celsius. Temperature at critical level._ "

"C-c-come...o-on...," he said as he hauled Isaac up another time.

Once the door slid upwards, he limped in, and noticed something wrong with the temperature.

"No...heating?" Carver voiced, but at that same time, he spotted something bright blue at the corner of the main room. "Generator...!"

He immediately set Isaac down again and shakily aimed at the torque ring.

" _Body temperature at one degree Celsius._ "

His suit was so cold that Carver's telekinesis had to charge up a bit, but when he finally turned on the generator, the door behind him closed and hot air started to come out of the vent behind him. He took a moment to rest his eyes for a bit and attempted to slow his breathing. His grip tightened on Isaac's helmet while he let out a long, calm sigh.

Wait...isn't Isaac bleeding out?

"Oh shit."

Carver looked around for a bit before locating a Suit Kiosk in another room to the left and carried Isaac towards it. He set the kiosk to change his friend's Arctic Survival Suit into civilian clothes, placed him in the braces, and waited outside patiently, gripping his gash in attempt to further subdue the pain that he himself was experiencing.

Once he caught the unconscious body from falling onto the floor, he located a table, pushed off all of the items on it and slowly placed his friend on top of it. Carver removed Isaac's jacket and shirt, and flipped him over, so that his bare chest was resting on the surface, and made sure his head was turned to the side so he wouldn't suffocate.

He finally got a good look at the wound; it wasn't pretty.

It looked the gash had exposed part of the side of his vertebrae. If it got damaged in any way, Isaac probably would never walk again. Also, it was full of blood and it looked like just a bit of the muscle has been ripped off.

Carver's heart was pounding at the sight. He had to do something fast, and the only thing that came to mind was somatic gel. Maybe he could apply some to the gash to try and get his muscles to heal themselves. He looked around the building for any type of can with the gel and finds it next to an empty spray can. He thinks for a bit before he takes both and brings it to the Bench across the room from the Suit Kiosk.

Okay, what did Isaac tell me about making stuff? Carver thought. He ponders for a bit and starts to make a small med pack. He then opens up the tip of the pack, shoves its contents into the can and brings it to the table Isaac is on. He spots a monitor to the left and presses a green button. It scanned the lifeform on the table, detects Isaac, and displays its BMP and health meter. They were both very low.

Carver tried to apply the gel on Clarke's wound, but his suit made it difficult to press the button at the top, so he went to the Suit Kiosk to remove his Forces suit. Once he got out, he cried out in pain due to the fabric rubbing against his own gash. He takes off his marine uniform to reveal his chiseled, bloodstained abs, and picks up the can.

He sprays a bit of the gel onto it and waits a bit for the effects. It seemed to heal a bit of the scarred insides of Isaac, but it didn't look like it would have a lasting effect on the damage.

This will have to do for now, Carver thought, sealing up the hole with the gel and covered it with some large bandage he found lying around. He then did the same to himself, but what he didn't realize is that applying it like this hurt like hell, so he was wincing and grunting the entire time.

Once he made sure that Clarke was in a stable condition, Carver decided to look around their place of establishment, as he didn't have the time to do it before, because...y'know, saving lives and stuff. Once he walked out of the room Isaac is stationed in, he arrived back in the main corridor. He looked to his right and saw the door he came in. The blue circular hologram bearing the word "Unlocked" across its diameter. To his left, there were two more doorways facing each other with a window towards the outside world, holding nothing but a view of a white, frozen wasteland. There is another door right in front of him, but unfortunately, it looks like it has been busted. At this point in time, he has no means of going through the door.

He decided to go up the corridor then take a left, and it led to a staircase to the rather spacious upper floor. It looked like the upper floor was entirely dedicated to sleeping quarters. The landing led into three separate rooms, each with only one set of bunk beds, a dresser, a holographic television and a sliding metal door to a shower.

He went down the stairs and went across the hall to get to a door that led into a snowmobile garage. He walked up to the only machine in the middle and noticed that the engine was busted.

"Well so much for that..." he said disappointingly.

When he turned around to go join Isaac again, he accidentally touched a green button on a console that blinked for a couple of seconds.

"...Oka-"

All of a sudden, the platform that he was standing on started to descend into another large room under the garage. It held two other snowmobiles that looked like were in pristine condition.

"Well, that works."

He turned around to hit the switch again to go back up, but then he noticed yet another door with a blue hologram on it. Curiosity itself guided him towards it and opened it. Inside held what looked to be a body of a small spaceship. There were also a bunch of spare parts lying around the hull that he speculated other people tried to build to get off of this planet, but failed to do so because of the messed up mentality of the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces or necromorphs. There were blood and bones littering the floor.

This is exactly what he was looking for; a way off of this frozen shithole...forever.

He rushed to the platform and rushed to where Isaac was.

"Isaac!" he hollered. "Isaac! I found a vessel that we could ta-"

He's still unconscious.

Carver lowered his hands that he didn't know he had up in the first place and chuckled to himself. He walked over to his friend, slung his shirt over his shoulder and picked him up to bring to the bunk beds. Carver slid him into the fabric, took off only his pants, placed them on the dresser, and placed him in the covers of the bottom bunk bed in the furthest room from the stairs. He then took off his own pants, placed them beside his friend's, closed the door and climbed up into the bed above of Isaac.

The fading pain took a toll on his energy and he fell asleep instantly when his head hit the pillow.

* * *

_"...John...John... Are you still alive, John?"_

_Carver came to with a start; his body shooting up into a sitting position at the voice he heard. Eyes shooting around to see where the voice came from. All he saw was blurry dark red surroundings that looked as if he was in a middle of a hurricane, and a broken floor underneath him as if it was, in fact, broken off of the ground and was thrown into the eye of the storm. He looked down and saw that be was back in his signature Special Forces suit._

_"W-who was that?" he asked into the sky above him._

_"I'm a figment of your imagination," it responded. "I'm the voice of reason and accountability."_

_John could've sworn that it sounded like someone familiar, until it finally hit him._

_"I-Isaac?" he asked._

_He then heard a chuckle._

_"What, your friend and soon-to-be lover?"_

_"W-What?" Carver stammered with a facial expression filled with confusion. "What does that even mean?"_

_He heard the voice chuckle again._

_"You'll find out soon enough..."_

_John suddenly heard screams and saw shadows all around him. He knew exactly what those were and got up to run away from them. He finally got to a wall, turned around and saw the small shadowy figures crowd around him. He clenched his eyes together and prepared for the inevitable._

If I only had a gun _, he thought as he heard the moans and screams come closer to him..._

_But all of a sudden, the horrid sounds stopped and he heard a heavy clink of what sounds like a gun..._

_Sure enough, when he opened his eyes, he saw a pulse rifle lying on the ground. He smirked, picked it up, aimed at the shadows before him, and fired until he emptied the clip and until all threats had been neutralized. A bright flash appeared at the corner of his eye all of a sudden, when he looked towards it, his auburn pupils dilated and his mouth went agape._

_He slowly inched his way towards the source, dropping his gun halfway to his destination. Once he reached the light, he extended his hand towards it and touched an object...that appeared to be not an object at all but...another human. The other turned to face Carver, his helmet shining with a blinding blue light._

_"You okay, Carver?" Isaac asked his companion._

* * *

With a loud gasp for air and an upright jolt, John was awake on the bed in a pool of sweat. The perspiration silently, and blissfully, cascaded down his glistening body. He panted hard and frequently, putting his face in his palms after a minute of looking around the room to make sure he was back in reality. He checked if Isaac was still unconscious underneath him, and sure enough, he was. He went back up into a seated position after a couple of moments and decided that he **really** wanted to get out of this bed.

"I need some exercise," he whispered to himself, and he quietly slipped out of the covers, down the ladder, and put on his pants and boots. He then set the sheets to be cleaned by the built-in laundry chute that sucks up the articles on the bed and feeds them directly into the washing machine. He sneaked out of the room and made his way directly to the garage.

He spotted a horizontal bar really high up from the ground out of the corner of his eye and walked up to it. His strong hands grasped the steel and he lifted himself off of the concrete underneath him and started to count out loud, the sound from his lips echoing off of the rusting metal, shattered tiles, and decaying plaster around the room.

"One...two...three...four..."


	2. The Crash

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that it took this long to upload the chapters onto AO3 despite the fact that they've been out on FanFiction.net for the longest time. I just suck at everything right now. I am trying to be able to make more time to continue writing this. I know that a lot of people like my work (for some reason), and when I disappoint them by not following up the story with a new chapter at a regular pace, it makes me feel like the worst person in the world. I really appreciate every praise about what I wrote and any suggestion to what I should add into the story. I love you all and people like you make me want to keep on writing this story. I'm sorry that I just suck at being a good author. 3
> 
> Please enjoy!

**Previously in Chapter 1:**

_With a loud gasp for air and an upright jolt, John was awake on the bed in a pool of sweat. The perspiration silently, and blissfully, cascaded down his glistening body. He panted hard and frequently, putting his face in his palms after a minute of looking around the room to make sure he was back in reality. He checked if Isaac was still unconscious underneath him, and sure enough, he was. He went back up into a seated position after a couple of moments and decided that he **really**  wanted to get out of this bed._

_"I need some exercise," he whispered to himself, and he quietly slipped out of the covers, down the ladder, and put on his pants and boots. He then set the sheets to be cleaned by the built-in laundry chute that sucks up the articles on the bed and feeds them directly into the washing machine. He sneaked out of the room and made his way directly to the garage._

_He spotted a horizontal bar really high up from the ground out of the corner of his eye and walked up to it. His strong hands grasped the steel and he lifted himself off of the concrete underneath him and started to count out loud, the sound from his lips echoing off of the rusting metal, shattered tiles, and decaying plaster around the room._

_"One...two...three...four..."_

* * *

Chapter 2: The Crash

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

The alarm blared throughout the facility, and panic bounced off the steel walls. The footsteps of every soldier were heard at every corner of the base as the Unitologists flooded out of the hallways and in the hangers. One-by-one, the ships exited the hangar doors and escaped into the freezing weather and starry skies. Amidst the rush, a man was getting his stuff together in his room. He heard the shuffling outside his door as he got his documents into his bag. The flashing red light and loud speaker in his room wasn't helping his concentration, so he decided to take the plasma pistol that was resting on the table beside him and shot the two objects, slightly quieting and darkening the room simultaneously.

Someone banged on his door and he turned around to look, his dark-framed glasses reflecting light from the holographic screen in front of him.

"...C-Come in..." he said in hesitation, voice cracking when he spoke.

The door slid open with a hissing sound and his friend stepped through the hole.

"Hey, what's the hold up?" his friend asked, eyes filled with concern.

"Uh...just getting some things," he replied, rubbing his right hand back and forth in his golden hair while he turned around.

His friend pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "For fucks sake, Ben, we don't have time for this!"

"I worked hard on this research, David!" he snapped back, turning back around to aim his hazel eyes directly into his friend's green ones. "I'm not just going to throw it all away just because of some fucking moon!"

"Well then hurry up!" He yelled as he threw up his arms.

Ben turned back around while pushing his glasses into place. He got the last of the glass panels into the bag and as he put the strap over his shoulder; the bag locked automatically.

"Let's go," he said as he grabbed his outdoor lab coat and holstered his pistol. David following close behind.

As they got into the hangar, they saw that only two ships were left, and a couple of soldiers were shooting at each other for the last ones. They didn't want to whip out their own guns and join the fight, so they decided to sneak around back through the cargo on the side and try to snag one of the transports while nobody was looking. The shitty job the shipping department did in organization actually helped for once as the sealed crates created a perfect line of cover towards the back of one of the ships. Keeping a close eye on their surroundings, they quietly sneaked over to their goal while the bullets whizzed over their heads.

Ben placed his entire hand on the glass panel at the side of the ship. Once it confirmed his identity, the large door slid open...only to reveal a soldier who was hiding and decided to point his pistol at Ben's face when he came into view.

"I don't think so," he said as he began to cock the gun.

But then all of a sudden there was a loud howl coming from deeper inside the mostly vacant facility, and its owner made itself apparent when it busted the doors down.

It was a huge necromorph that scientists dubbed "The Brute".

While everyone stared at the beast, David took it as an opportunity to grab the pistol pointed to his friend's face and pulled the trigger at the soldier's heart, killing him instantly. The soldier's eyes were wide with shock as the body limply rolled out of the transport. The red water leaked from the hole in his chest and stained the concrete underneath.

They both got into the cockpit and started up the shockpoint drives.

"Fuck fuck fuck..." David cursed as he witnessed the Brute barreling closer and closer to where the ships were, crushing or smashing through other people while on the way to its destination. "Can't this thing fire up any faster?!"

Ben locked the doors when he started to hear people banging the sides begging to be let in. He refused because the unfamiliarity led to trust issues, and he was in the process of taking off at that moment in time. Thinking that they were in the clear when they passed the gates to the outside world, Ben and David's bodies went at ease for a moment, but all of the stress returned when they heard an explosion behind them followed by the other ship crashing into their own.

"SHIT! THE CONTROLS ARE SHOT!" Ben exclaimed as he witnessed the controls sparking up and catching on fire.

The two males just gripped onto their seats helplessly as they waited for the ship to crash into the ice below. It continued to spiral out of control for a couple of minutes until it finally smashed against the planet creating a small crater around it. The black smoke that came from the fire billowed into the red sky, peacefully, and gracefully.

* * *

When the metal door that led into the bathroom slid open, the hot steam rushed out like a stampede of wildebeests fleeing from a dinosaur riding on top of a dragon while holding a lightsaber in one hand and a chain gun in the other, eyes blind with rage because someone dared to touch his cake or whatever.

John's wet feet stepped onto the ground with a tiny smack. His towel hung over his hips perfectly, stopping just short of his pubic hair. The water on his body shone in the light beautifully, highlighting every right feature of his body well enough that anyone would ravage every inch of his skin in a heartbeat.

He checked on Isaac for a second to make sure that he was okay and he went into the room beside to look for some clothes to put on. He found a closet in a wall with tons of clothing all neatly cleaned, pressed, and folded. He exited the room once he put on white underwear, white socks, a dark green shirt, and beige pants.

He went up to the Bench to see if he had any weapon parts to work with. While falling, both Isaac and himself must've lost their weapons in the sky, but he wanted to be prepared at all times. Luckily, he found enough parts for two weapons. He decided to only make one for now. He would wait until Isaac woke up from his deep slumber to make the second one. A couple of seconds later, out came a Pulse Rifle. He checked the operations, laser sights, and the ammo. He only had seventy-two rounds, so he had to make his shots count.

He smirked when he held the piece of machinery in his hands. Whenever he had a gun, he felt in power, and he loves to be in power.

That smirk did shatter, however, when he heard a loud explosion near the building.

"What the fuck?" He wondered as he peeked through the window. He noticed that there was a crater with smoke coming out the middle.

After a long sigh, he decided to check it out just to make sure that it wouldn't be anything alien or hostile. He traversed up the steps and into the bedroom Isaac was situated in.

"Hey Isaac?" he said, wondering if he was awake yet. "Isaac?"

Still unconscious.

He gave a nod, shut the door behind him and went back downstairs. He walked to the Suit Kiosk and went to browse the suits available.

" _Welcome, Military Sergeant John Carver." the Kiosk said to him. "Your previous suit was repaired and was modified to better suit the cold climate of this planet._ "

He stepped inside and let the robotic arms grab his legs, arms, torso, and head. When the thin doors closed in front of him and he clenched his eyes shut. He felt the suit being applied to his body like tape, having the other parts of his suit snap on and be stitched together with quick precision. A couple of seconds later, the doors opened and the Kiosk popped him out of its brace. He rotated his neck to crack it, and stretched all of his fingers to get them used to the airtight suit around it. This suit was just like his Special Forces Suit that he had on before, but he noticed some spots of fake fur around his neck. He also noticed that the torso section goes out a bit more than usual and the entire suit is just a tab bit heavier than before. Giving a nod of approval and then straightening his head, he felt the helmet come together around his face and locking together with a satisfying hissing sound.

He grabbed the Pulse Rifle off of the table and went for the front door, putting his left hand over the blue unlocked circle and watched it slide upward. Then a rush of cold air started to blow past him and he saw the blizzard blow around the crash site. When took the first step into the crystal white snow, he immediately felt a burst of hot air on his chest.

He walked closer and closer towards the wreck, the white powder became thicker and thicker around his ankles. When he actually reached the edge of the crater, the first thing that caught his eye was the insignia on the ship.

"Unitologists?" he wondered out loud, voice echoing throughout his helmet.

His muscles started the tense up suddenly when the term rolled off of his tongue. He remembered the constant firefights. He remembered the hatred he felt when he found out that his own captain was working with these assholes. He remembered comforting Isaac when he thought that his girlfriend died in a room full of acid gas. He remembered almost being swallowed whole by a moon due to the that their leader did.

He didn't realize that the sides of the crater was so steep until he almost twisted his ankle of the outer rim, falling on his ass, and slid down towards the fires. He steadied himself against the red metal, gloves gliding across its damaged exterior until he got to the doors. He forced the door open with his own strength, and found two bodies inside. One of them seemed to be a blonde guy, in his early-forties, maybe even late-thirties. A pair of glasses was resting on the floor next to his head. The other had a bright shade of red hair, also looking to be around the same age group as his friend.

John pressed some holographic buttons of his left arm and reached out to grab both of the bodies arms.

"Check RIG identification and statuses," Carver commanded to the RIG overlay.

" _One moment, please,_ " the RIG replied. " _Benjamin Cooper, thirty-eight years of age, and David Callaghan, forty-two years of age, identified. Information suggests that both men come from planet Earth. They are both in a stable but unconscious state._ "

John released both of their arms and sighed. He decided to do the right thing and bring them to safety.

* * *

After getting each one out of the crater and dragging them to the door, the sergeant relieved them of their weapons by placing them on the Bench and lugged them both up the steps. He checked on Isaac really quick before placing the others on the bunk beds in the room next door. After wiping the sweat off of his brow, John made his way back downstairs and made the Kiosk take off his suit. He placed his hand on the cabinet above the Bench and watched it slowly pop out of the wall, revealing shelving inside. He stored both pistols he acquired from the bodies and his own rifle inside them, touched the outside of it, and walked away while it traveled back into the wall.

The prejudice side of him came out and he decided to lock the door the two strangers were in, but left a note on the outside for them to read when they get up. He went back into the room Isaac was in and he knelt down beside his partner. He placed his index and middle fingers on Clarke's veins on his left arm. They still pumped the red liquid, yet when he looked for any breathing, he felt none.

After what seemed like an hour, he got back up with a sigh and climbed up the ladder to his bed. He was feeling uneasy until his eyelids slid closed once again.

* * *

" _John? John?"_

_Said person found himself slouched over while sitting on a bench outside the city; hands cradling his own head. He jolted upright as soon as he heard that voice over the RIG Link. Was he really sleeping on the job? He didn't remember doing so..._

" _John?" the voice said again. "John are you there?"_

_He inhaled deeply. "Oh yeah! Oh yeah, sorry about that Damara."_

_He then heard her sigh. "I just wish that you would come home to sleep."_

_At that instant he got up, found his Pulse Rifle right next to him, picked it up, made sure that the safety was on, and walked away from the small structure. The white snow around him flowed into the light wind._

" _Damara, you know I can't do that just yet," he replied to his wife._

" _You missed your son's bedtime again."_

_Carver sighed deeply._

" _This is the third time this week. When are you going to realize that your actions have serious conseq..."_

_While his wife droned on, he noticed that a small tube-shaped object came down from the sky very quickly. It seemed that it also had left a trail of smoke behind it._

_But that's when it hit him._

_It's a missile._

" _Damara," he spoke hastily, cutting of what she was saying, "grab Dylan and get somewhere safe."_

" _John...what's happening?"_

" _IT'S AN ATTACK! GET TO COVER, NOW!"_

" _...Dylan, we have to go!...No arguing with me, just come on!"_

_While on the same call, John switched over to a public channel where he was sure some other security officers were on._

" _Central! Incoming fire, do you copy? DO YOU COPY, CENTRAL?!"_

_The missile struck and a giant explosion erupted from the place that it landed. The blast was so massive that it even reached John and knocked him backwards a couple of feet. After recovering, he got up off of the snow and started to walk back towards the site._

" _Damara, are you there? Can you hear me?"_

" _...Yes..," she responded. "...we're...still here..."_

" _Oh thank God..."_

" _We're trying to open the front door but it's jammed shut because of a failsafe lockdown."_

" _Okay. I'll try to get to you then-"_

_At that instant, he saw that the Marker Shroud was destroyed and the Marker that used to be concealed was now exposed into the cold night air. It started eerily glowing red around the edges._

" _Central, come in! The Marker; it's exposed!"_

_All of a sudden, he saw a bright light emitting off of the exposed Marker._

" _EMP isn't far behind! Is your protocol up? Repeat, ENGAGE! EMP protocol is-"_

_Then there was a loud booming sound and his link to Damara has ceased. His suit also stopped working; it no longer displayed his vitals and status. His helmet automatically opened so that he wouldn't be trapped in there while the power was out._

" _Damara?" he asked into the air, breath wasted due to the disconnection. "Damara?!"_

_He then saw a flying object in the distance. He squinted and saw that the object was a cargo ship and that it was peacefully gliding towards the town._

_Then he had to process those thoughts for a second._

_Cargo ship._

_Gliding downwards._

_Towards the city._

_Residential district._

_Damara and Dylan._

" _Air traffic control, come in! You've got ships dropping out of orbit! Headed straight for residential! DO YOU COPY?!"_

_Then said ship crashed into a nearby mountain, splitting in half due to the force of the collision. One half rolled down the mountain while the other went straight into the side of the residential district, ripping a chunk out of the side of it._

_Staring at the destruction made his chest hurt. "Oh my god..."_

_All of a sudden he heard a voice coming from his suit._

"Power online," _it said. "_ Rebooting. _"_

_His vitals reappeared and his status showed that he was still standing on the outskirts of the city. He felt a little warmer when his helmet closed back over his head. He immediately tried to contact his wife._

" _Damara, come in," he worried. "Come on, baby, I need you to answer me."_

"Connection failed. _"_

_He gave a heavy sigh and started to run towards the fiery buildings below._

* * *

_Once the pattering of his feet resonated off of the carpet his helmet disassembled revealing his auburn eyes filled with worry. He came up to the door to his condo and knocked on the metal door lightly. To his surprise, it slowly fell down flat against the floor, rendering it useless. He stepped into the room and was welcomed by large amounts of blood that have been splattered across the floor and walls. The sight made John sick and kept him on his toes._

_"...Damara?" he asked into the room that reeked of death. "...Dylan? Are you two...alright?"_

_He walked over to the bedroom to the left of the front door and immediately knew that it was a mistake._

_He felt his heart stop._

_He found the bodies of his wife and son chained to the headboard, the bullet holes in their heads leaking the precious liquid of life, staining the white bed sheet underneath._

_John wanted to believe that what he was seeing was a lie, that he was imagining the entire sight, but the stench invaded his mind and shoved him back into reality. His eyes began to water while his heart welled up with sadness. He dropped his gun; the sound of clinking metal resonating off of the red walls. He slowly made his way over to the side of the bed his wife was on, and dropped down to his knees, because his legs couldn't support the weight of his sorrow. His left hand cradled her head and he turned it so he could look into her eyes. Where it used to be bright and shining green eyes was now a faded version and the only thing they held was death._

_"N-no..." he shook._

_The tears flowed freely down Carver's scarred cheeks, blurring his vision while the liquid collected in his lids, waiting to be set free into the cold air around him. His entire body shook while he sobbed. He felt like half of his heart had just shriveled up and died with no hope of recovery. The sergeant wasn't ready for the amount of sheer pain he felt. He wanted it all to go away. Then, as if the world obeyed his command, John witnessed everything around him turn into gold dust and evaporate right in front of him. This happened until there was nothing left and he found himself in complete darkness._

_His brown eyes stared at the blood on his gloved hands. John clenched his eyelids together and felt the salty water drip faster down his epidermis. He heard the droplets hit the black nothingness under him._

_He heard footsteps slowly getting louder as the other person came closer to where he was. John didn't even bother. If the other person came to kill him, good. He'd be better off dead than alive. Yet, instead of a gun barrel pointed at his forehead, he let strong arms pick him off of the ground and brought him close to their chest. Carver, having nothing else to do, returned the embrace and cried into the other person's shoulder for a while._

" _I just want you to know that I'm here for you, John," the person said. Carver eyes slid open slowly and moved away from him just a bit to get a good look at his face. Through the blurry haze, he made out Isaac's face, blue eyes shining bright, lips curved upwards in a sad smile. The engineer brought his right hand to the other's chest and John felt his heart getting warmer, as if his partner's touch healed his wounds._

_All of a sudden, Clarke moved his face towards Carver's until their noses were half-an-inch apart and smiled even brighter than before._

" _John," Isaac started. "I lo-"_

* * *

Carver woke up with a start, panting hard, sweating fiercely, and tears flowing slowly. He then remembered the dream and put his head in his hands and sobbed quietly. The dream was just a memory of what actually happened...well, until the last part. He remembered how much his heart hurt to find them there, but at the same time, he wondered what the sudden increase of Isaac themed dreams meant. He decided to sneak another peek at said person by quietly climbing down the ladder and kneeling down next to him.

Still unconscious.

For some reason, being this close to the engineer made the sergeant's heart beat faster, as if it's trying to encourage the other's heart to never give up. As if his heart is beating for the other person. He felt his breath quicken and he decided to shuffle out of the room.

"Fucking shit," John cursed.. "I...need some more exercise."


	3. Late Night Whispers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another one!

**Previously in Chapter 2:**

_Carver woke up with a start, panting hard, sweating fiercely, and tears flowing slowly. He then remembered the dream and put his head in his hands and sobbed quietly. The dream was just a memory of what actually happened...well, until the last part. He remembered how much his heart hurt to find them there, but at the same time, he wondered what the sudden increase of Isaac themed dreams meant. He decided to sneak another peek at said person by quietly climbing down the ladder and kneeling down next to him._

_Still unconscious._

_For some reason, being this close to the engineer made the sergeant's heart beat faster, as if it's trying to encourage the other's heart to never give up. As if his heart is beating for the other person. He felt his breath quicken and he decided to shuffle out of the room._

_"Fucking shit," John cursed.. "I...need some more exercise."_

* * *

Chapter 3: Late Night Whispers

David groaned when he woke up, realizing that he had a minor headache. It got worse, however, when he hit his head on the floor as he fell out of the bed he was in.

"Ah! Fuck!"

He clutched his head and groaned until the pain subsided into a dull state. Once he regained his bearings, he looked around the room, jade eyes landing on the faded beige curtains blocking out the bright white light from outside, the steel walls with what appeared to have had red markings on them at one point, the brown dresser at the back of the room all messy and disheveled, the small spots of red all over the floor that implied that someone started to bleed out around here, and finally noticed Ben sleeping in the bunk bed across from his bunk bed. The doctor was about to wake him up, but decided against it after seeing a door with a note stuck on the window.

He silently made his way over to the piece of paper to read whatever was scrolled across it.

' _If at least one of you is awake, press the blue button to your right.'_

David turned his head to the right and immediately saw a blue button concealed in the wall with a tinted glass panel. He flipped open the hatch and punched the blue thing.

Nothing happened.

He slowly started to close it when he finally heard frantic footsteps coming closer and closer to where he was. Someone stood outside the door and ripped off the note. The person peered inside and that's when David got his first look at the brown-eyed Hispanic guy with a scarred face. David stared at him as he stared back, as if sizing him up, before nodding slightly and unlocked the door.

Once it slid open, the doctor finally got a good glimpse of the rest of his body. Obviously this guy has been working out recently since the entire top half of his body was drenched with sweat, abdominals shining in the glow of the light, He panted ever so slightly.

"You a Unitologist?" he asked.

David gulped. "N-no. Not exactly...w-why?" He started to get a bit creeped out by his stare.

"How so?"

"I'm a doctor. I don't share any beliefs with those nutcases. Since there was an influx of doctors on Rahnor, I didn't have a job. I got a message saying that there was a job with a group or something and it had really high pay...The only downside was that I had to work off planet."

The other shifted his weight and crossed his arms, sizing him up yet again. After a minute or two he extended his hand for him to shake.

"John," he said. "John Carver."

David extended his own hand to accept the other's in a firm handshake. "David. David Callaghan."

"So you said that you're a doctor?"

"I...believe that I did, yes."

"Can you help me out with my friend here?"

David's eyebrow raised involuntarily at the question, and he decided to follow John to the other room. There, he saw another male on the bunk bed, wearing a dark green t-shirt and long white boxers. It seemed that everything was okay, until he noticed the small spot of blood on his back and the lack of any movement, indicating that he wasn't even breathing.

"His name's Isaac," John said. "I've got us here two days ago, and ever since he's been unconscious with quite a big gash on his back."

The doctor decided to check out this gash by placing him flat on his front and lifting his shirt.

"Damn...that's really bad."

"I'm really worried about him. Is he going to be okay?"

"What have you done to the wound since you've seen it like this?"

"I applied a bit of raw somatic gel on it to try and seal it up for now. I'm not exactly an expert at these thin-"

"I think that you've actually saved Isaac's ability to walk again."

Callaghan turned his head and saw the corners of Carver's lips curve upwards ever-so-slightly in a small smile. He turned his head back around and attempted to lift Isaac off of the bed.

"I got this." With that, Carver picked up his friend with ease. "Where do you want him?"

"Well, I need to get to a flat surface to try and fix him up."

"Follow me." David followed John downstairs until they arrived in the main room. The Hispanic lightly placed him on the table at the back of the room. The doctor then proceeded to remove his shirt to get a better look at the wound.

"Do we have any type of first aid kits here?" David asked.

"No." John replied. "I tried looking everywhere, but all I could find is the gel."

Callaghan thought for a second before taking the shirt Isaac previously wore and tore it up. He tightly wrapped the shirt around his body, found a stapler nearby and stapled the ends together.

"This would have to do for now..," The doctor said. "So how did I get here?"

"Look outside."

David looked outside to see a giant crater in the middle of the plains with a small column of smoke billowing out of it.

"I was building some weapons here when I heard a big boom," John said. "I looked outside and I saw that something had crashed there. I put on my suit and decided to check it out and I found you and your friend there unconscious in a Unitologist ship."

"Thanks. I appreciate it" Callaghan then remembered something. "Wait- I think there should be a First Aid kit in there, actually," he said.

"D-do you want me to go get it?" Carver asked, a hint of hesitancy in his voice.

"If you would like to..."

David turned around to see John have an uneasy look on his face, brown eyes deviating between himself and his friend.

"Don't worry about it," the doctor told him. "I'll take good care of him."

Carver let out a long sigh along with a small nod, and went to the Suit Kiosk. Once he was suited up, Callaghan noticed the sergeant insignia on the upper-left corner of his chest.

 _No wonder he's built_ , David thought, as he watched him take his Pulse Rifle out of the wall, unlock the door, and venture forth into the wind; helmet closing over his face as he took his first step into the snow. Once the door closed, he went back to where Isaac was situated and when he placed him on his back he appeared to mumble something...

"Carver..."

"Isaac?" David wondered. He grabbed his left shoulder with his right hand, placed his left one on his bare stomach and tried to shake him awake. "Isaac, are you there?"

Nothing.

"Interesting..." David took a mental note of this unconscious behavior.

* * *

Once he slid into the machine, John stood up in the main cabin, disassembled his helmet and looked around for any type of box that he expects to have a giant red cross on the front. He checked under the seats. Nothing. The wall compartments, nothing. The overhead compartments, even. Yet, still nothing. He decided to check in the cockpit but when he did his eyes became wide with surprise.

"Hello, John," Damara greeted.

He felt his heart quicken and he backed away slowly. "What...the...fuck..."

"You seem surprised to see me?"

"No shit! I saw you d-dead..." Tears began to well up in his eyes. Her green eyes shined brightly and her face was impeccable. It looked as if the event he remembered actually never occurred at all. He was about to walk closer, just to touch her face; just to feel her comforting warmth again, but when he remembered the hallucinations he had pre-moon event, he retracted his hand immediately.

"No...no this...this...I'm...I'm imagining things again." His voice was shaky due to his overwhelming emotions. "Y-you're not really there."

"What are you talking about?" Her eyes held a poisonous tinge of pain. "You don't think that your wife is standing right in front of you?" When she took yet another step forward, John took yet another step backward.

"Get the fuck away from me."

"John?"

He had to close his eyes in order to process this thoughts for a second.

"John, look at me."

"You're not here."

"Please, John?"

"Get out of my head!"

He felt his back hit a wall, yet his focus never deviated.

"Please look at me John!"

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Why are you saying these things?"

"THE DAMARA I KNEW IS GONE! I saw her dead and I just have to accept that she won't be...here anymore."

He heard his voice echo throughout the cabin and he panted hard. Damara no longer consumed his thoughts. When he thought it was over, he opened his eyes. Her ghost was no longer there.

" _We'll be back for you,_ " her voiced echoed.

"What?!" he yelled into the air. "Who's we?!"

He didn't get a response.

He had to take a second to calm down, breathing out a heavy sigh, and when he started to look for it again, he spotted a secret door under his boots. He went down to his knees unlocked the hatch and sure enough, the first aid kit was in there. He checked the contents to see that everything was there; medical alcohol, various cloths made of various materials, ultra military-grade pain meds, a bottle of sedative, classic stitches and bandages, more somatic gel, and most importantly, a ready-made small med pack. John nodded his head, closed the kit and made sure that it was secure, and started to walk back to the building.

He couldn't stop thinking about what he'd seen.  _We..?_  he thought.  _I don't like the sound of that..._

* * *

Once John slid the door open, he heard a new voice accompanying the doctors voice. They stopped talking when they heard him come in from the howling wind. The sergeant became uneasy as he slowly walked into the main room, door sliding back closed behind him, and helmet disassembling around his head.

"Welcome back, John," David greeted. "This is my friend Ben." He motioned towards the blonde beside him, who was staring at him already. "I took the liberty of waking him up. I hope you don't mind."

John started to get paranoid thoughts in the back of his head while he stared back at Ben. He began to think that they had strength in numbers and that they could've easily taken down both Isaac and himself. He pushed those thoughts into the back of his mind for now while walking up to David and handing him the first aid kit he acquired.

"No...no I don't," he lied.

"Thanks for not letting us die out there," Ben acknowledged, smiling. "I appreciate it."

"WE appreciate it," the doctor added.

"No problem," Carver replied.

David opened up the med kit and immediately started to get to work on Isaac. John watched as he thoroughly cleaned the gash and stitched it back up.

"Ben," Callaghan started, "will you give me a hand with this?"

"Yeah," Cooper replied.

John took a step closer as he watched them placing Isaac upright. When Ben got a good hold on Clarke's left shoulder and both of his arms, David grabbed the bandage and started to unravel the roll around his body. Since Isaac had abs and everything, he was still relatively thin, so the doctor didn't have to use the entire roll. Once the sufficient amount had been used, he grabbed a knife that was nearby, much to the discomfort of John, and cut the remaining amount of bandage. He gently laid him down afterwards.

"He needs a clean and comfortable bed to sleep in," David said.

"The beds upstairs aren't really that comfortable," John started, "but I'll go change the sheets on his bed."

He light-jogged up the stairs, entered the room he and Isaac shared, pressed a button next to the bed, and the vacuum in the wall sucked up the stained sheets. He went into the closet, grabbed some new sheets, a new pillow with a crisp pillowcase, and laid out the bed perfectly; a skill he learned during the early years of his fatherhood.

"Okay!" he called out. "It's ready!"

He then heard them haul Isaac up the stairs and place him tenderly on the mattress. John was the one who grabbed the cover and tucked him in, making sure that he was warm enough.

"...Thanks," John acknowledged.

"No problem," David replied. "I really hope that he recovers quickly."

"So...what do we do with him now?" Ben asked.

"Whatever we could've done for him, we did already," the doctor replied. "Now all we could do is wait for him to come back to us."

All three walked out of the room and closed the door behind them.

"We need to get off of this ice cube pronto," Ben said. "Any ideas how?"

"There's a ship down in the garage," John replied, "...but it needs new parts and repairs to its hull."

"Do you know how to fix it up?" David asked.

"No..," John pondered, "...but Isaac does. He's an engineer."

The other two sighed. "Let's just hope that he comes back to us soon," Ben said.

* * *

A couple of hours later when the scientist and the doctor was asleep, John climbed down his ladder and knelt beside Isaac. He stared at him for a long time, eyes drifting over his face then down to his rising and sinking chest. It made him sad that he wouldn't be able to talk to the only person left that he truly trusted. All he could do is stare at him and hope that he would come to his senses once again, so they would fix up the ship and escape this shithole once and for all. He longed to get back to Earth and enjoy the preserved natural parks that some select communities maintained. See the birds flapping and tweeting in the wind, everything is as happy as could be, making you feel as if nothing could ever ruin the beauty in front of your eyes.

Without realizing it, Carver inched closer to his unconscious friend and his hands went up to reach out to him; right hand grasping his head and left hand resting on his abdomen.

"C'mon, Isaac," John whispered while resting his head upon his friend's pecs, listening to his slow heartbeat. "I need you to come back to me, man. Don't leave me like everyone else in my life did. Come back so we could get back to Earth. Let's forget about whatever happened out in deep space and let's just get back so...we could start...I dunno, families, maybe. I could find someone else - that is, if anyone would really go out with a scar faced asshole in the first place..." He chuckled quietly. "You could find Ellie again and you could settle down and just enjoy the slow life. You wouldn't have to worry about the necros anymore. We destroyed the fucking moon that sent out the signals after all.

"Wow...thinking about all we've been through just makes me smile. Holy fuck it was stressful, but somehow, I find the whole ideal funny. I still don't know how we survived that shit but it might be a sign about...something, anything. Did I ever tell you that I thought that everything happen for a reason? That might be it...as crazy and fucked up as that sounds..."

He started to get a bit teary-eyed. "I just hope that you waking up will be a thing that happens soon. I'd hate to leave Tau Volantis without you, Isaac."

And at that moment, Isaac's eyes opened.


	4. In The Meantime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the latest chapter that I posted. I'm going to be working with FionasEmbrace to try and post the next one soon-ish. I hope it won't be long.
> 
> (In the meantime, you could check out Fionas' page to see the fifth chapter early if you so desire. Be warned, anything in the chapter may change (But I doubt that anything really will.))

* * *

**WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.**

* * *

Previously in Chapter 3:

_A couple of hours later when the scientist and the doctor was asleep, John climbed down his ladder and knelt beside Isaac. He stared at him for a long time, eyes drifting over his face then down to his rising and sinking chest. It made him sad that he wouldn't be able to talk to the only person left that he truly trusted. All he could do is stare at him and hope that he would come to his senses once again, so they would fix up the ship and escape this shithole once and for all. He longed to get back to Earth and enjoy the preserved natural parks that some select communities maintained. See the birds flapping and tweeting in the wind, everything is as happy as could be, making you feel as if nothing could ever ruin the beauty in front of your eyes._

_Without realizing it, Carver inched closer to his unconscious friend and his hands went up to reach out to him; right hand grasping his head and left hand resting on his abdomen._

_"C'mon, Isaac," John whispered while resting his head upon his friend's pecs, listening to his slow heartbeat. "I need you to come back to me, man. Don't leave me like everyone else in my life did. Come back so we could get back to Earth. Let's forget about whatever happened out in deep space and let's just get back so...we could start...I dunno, families, maybe. I could find someone else - that is, if anyone would really go out with a scar faced asshole in the first place..." He chuckled quietly. "You could find Ellie again and you could settle down and just enjoy the slow life. You wouldn't have to worry about the necros anymore. We destroyed the fucking moon that sent out the signals after all._

_"Wow...thinking about all we've been through just makes me smile. Holy fuck it was stressful, but somehow, I find the whole ideal funny. I still don't know how we survived that shit but it might be a sign about...something, anything. Did I ever tell you that I thought that everything happen for a reason? That might be it...as crazy and fucked up as that sounds..."_

_He started to get a bit teary-eyed. "I just hope that you waking up will be a thing that happens soon. I'd hate to leave Tau Volantis without you, Isaac."_

_And at that moment, Isaac's eyes opened._

* * *

Chapter 4: In The Meantime

Isaac awoke with a start at the blaring alarm that sat on the nightstand beside him. While he clutched his head with his left hand in an effort to suppress a headache, his right hand traveled over to the bright clock and slammed down upon it, seizing the loud beeps instantly. He sighed loudly as he pushed himself off of the messy bed sheets below him and made his way for the bathroom.

Smacking his hand against the switch on the wall brought light to the light blue walls that had evidence of slow decay plastered all over them. His arms supported his weight while his hands were planted firmly against the rough surface of the graying countertop. He sighed as he stared at the sink full of water. The leaky faucet released a small drop every three seconds, and in turn making a tiny circular ripple in the mini lake before him.

Clarke looked up into the mirror to see if his face reflected how his head felt.

Although...he didn't see Isaac Clarke in the mirror...

"The fuck you doin', man?" Carver scolded towards his partner.

Isaac's face contorted into confusion.

"Carver?" he asked, to see if this was real or not.

"What are you doing TO MY APARTMENT?!" his partner yelled towards him, slightly startling the engineer.

Then all of a sudden, Isaac saw his surroundings turn into ice and then shatter revealing an icy cavern. He looked down and saw that he was in his Arctic Survival Suit and holding a Javelin Chain Gun with an attached Force Gun. His confusion was at an all time high, but when he looked at his partner while he still leaned on the icey sink, he appeared to not be fazed at all by what just happened. Isaac decided to do the same.

"W-we're not in your apartment," he replied.

Carver blinked and turned to look around while the sink he once touched instantly shattered with the loss of contact.

"We're not supposed to be anywhere," Clarke added when he remembered the episode with the moon.

His eyes never deviated off of his partner's face while he was busy looking around. John stopped looking around and looked back towards his partner, his brown eyes boring into Isaac's blue ones.

"A-Aren't we-"

"Dead?" Isaac interrupted. He held up the gun he had in his hand and fired one round out of his rifle. The loud bang resonated off of the light-blue ice around them, creating an echo that moved out of a tunnel behind Carver. The bullet hit an ice patch above Clarke and sent small pieces of ice tumbling down towards the ground. "Guess not," he said.

The soldier then got frustrated. "That doesn't make any sense!" he yelled. "Isaac, you activated the Codex. The Moon fell! WE FELL!"

The engineer started to problem solve in his brain. "What about the alien Machine?" he suggested. "It froze the planet - It pulled a  _Moon_  out of the sky! We don't know what that technology can do."

John breathed a sigh of disbelief. "So that's it?" he asked. "We were saved by FUCKING ALIENS?!"

Isaac wouldn't even begin to try and figure this out. "I...quit trying to make sense of it all back on the Ishimura," he said referencing his first encounter with anything that involved Necromorphs.

Carver's lips went wide and a puff of his breath went past them, clearly at loss with words. "Come on!" he gradually said, finding the words in his scattered mind. "This...This can't be real!" He threw his arms up in the air after saying that. "Well," he turned back to his partner, "what are we supposed to do now?"

"Well," the engineer started, being fast to respond, "for starters, get the hell out of here."

"And do what? Go back to Earth?"

"Yeah." The blue-eyed one stepped closer to the brown-eyed one, gaze never deviating from his partner's. "If we're dead, we can do whatever we want, right?"

Carver broke the lock as he looked around the cavern again as if he was searching the ancient ice for any clues to what the heck was going on around here. Without luck, he breathed a sigh while still having the engineer at the corner of his vision. "Right," he replied with a tone that made him sound like he had no more hope, and walked off towards the tunnel behind him.

Clarke checked his gun for a minute before heading off to follow the soldier.

" _Isaac?_!" a voice called suddenly. It made him stop in his tracks. Didn't it...didn't it sound like...John?

" _Isaac?!_ " it called again. " _You still kickin'?_ "

Yeah. That definitely sounded like John. But why did it sound so faint?

"C-Carver?!" he called out to his partner.

"What?!" said person called back.

The engineer was confused. "D-Didn't you say anything?!"

"No, I didn't fucking say anything!"

_What the..._

"Come on! It looks like this is the only way!"

Clarke hustled until he saw the soldier standing near grappling stations. He pointed upwards and Isaac saw the tall icy rock face.

"Well, here we go," Isaac sighed.

* * *

Once they both got to the top of the cliff, their mouths went agape at the sight before them. The moon was crumbling against the icy surface of the planet. The sky was red and cloudy. The mood it held was frightening as it screamed "death and destruction" in their minds. The cold wind bit at their cheeks as they looked around.

Isaac swallowed. "S-So we  **did**  kill the moon," he observed. "There it is."

"Why is it way over there?" John wondered.

"Um...the orbit must've carried westward as it was pulled down by the Machine."

Carver released a slow sigh. "I...I still don't understand how we survived."

That phrase sparked the engineer's mind to go into overdrive as it contemplated life and death all of a sudden. He thought about the Necromorphs and the Markers and the Necromorphs, and the Moon and the Necromorphs - wait...

"...Maybe we didn't," Clarke said as his face scrunched up in a mess of confusion and disgust.

"Well, I'd know if I was dead, man." the soldier replied.

"Man, I don't even know what 'dead' means anymore. Are we Necromorphs? Is this what they feel like after the...after the Marker... _re-animates_  them?" This earned a tap on his shoulder and a slap to the face by his partner.

"Could you be anymore crazy?!" John yelled. " **HELL**.  **NO**. We're not Necromorphs! We killed the thing that makes them! At least we don't have to put up with that shit anymore."

The dull pain in his cheek went unnoticed by the engineer as a sense of relief washed over him. "Heh. Yeah," he realized. "No more Moon...no more Marker Signal...no more Necromorphs." He made a small chuckle. "At least that's on our side."

"Yeah," his partner replied with a nod. "...Now we're just stuck on this Godforsaken planet."

Isaac thought for a second. "Danik had a strong contingent down here hunting us...One of their ships has to be around here."

Carver raised his left hand and pointed it to the other. "Now that a good idea," he said. He also gave a light punch to his shoulder. "Let's get looking, dead boy." He chuckled.

"That's not funny," Clarke replied.

The soldier showed his pearly-whites in a light-hearted smile. "Yeah it is."

_He's getting really touchy lately,_  the cerulean-eyed one thought as he stared into his partner's auburn ones. Don't get him wrong, it isn't like he's completely against it, right? Ever since they've met, when John knocked him to the floor, got over him, and hoisted him up, allowing his head to rest upon his stomach, he got a warm, fuzzy feeling whenever Carver touched him. Whenever he held a firm but comforting grip when his hand was placed on his shoulder, and whenever they were very close in proximity, either rubbing up against each other by accident when they were surrounded, or when their faces were up close to one another when they got into a heated argument.

It made Isaac regret from shoving him away when he agreed to help find Ellie.

"H-hey where are you going?!" Clarke asked when brought back into reality. He witnessed the other walk towards a dark walkway around the top of the cliff.

"We'll find a ship quicker if we split up." he replied.

Then, out of nowhere, the engineer had this grim feeling in his gut. He felt that if they separate, something terrible will happen. "I don't think that would be such a good idea, Carver..."

"What are you talking about? The bad monsters are dead, Isaac. We won. Just call me if you find a-"

His gut felt as if he was stabbed with a plasma saw. Something bad was about to happen to his partner. He had to move him. Now.

Without giving it a thought, Isaac telekinesis-grabbed John and pulled him in with all of his might. The soldier flung from his spot all the way to where the engineer was, knocking him over in the process. They slid while being clung together as a large chunk of Moon debris struck down where Carver was standing moments before. The hispanic man pushed himself off the ground by placing his right hand on the ice beside Isaac, his left hand on the engineer's chest, and turned his head to look at the danger.

_The warm feeling's there again..._

" **HOLY FUCK!** " John screamed into the cold air. Disbelief evident in his expression as he panted hard. He collapsed against his friend and found out that Isaac's been panting too. "Looks like I'm sticking with you, then." he said while putting his arm across his partner's chest.

Isaac started to chuckle and John joined in until they were killing themselves laughing.

Well...that is...until another huge chunk of debris landed close to where they were.

" **FUCK**. Get to cover!" Clarke shouted, and the two were up on their feet in the blink of an eye. They sprinted until they got to a small bunker, and they both rolled into the door bay as another rock stuck down directly in front of the bunker. The pair hunched over panting when they made sure that they were safe. Once they regained their bearings, they started to enter the room behind them.

Carver saw a Bench. "Oh look there's a- AAARRGGGHHH!"

Both of them clutched their heads and toppled over onto the floor as a scream filled their thoughts and...seven red Necromorph Moons slowly coming closer, filling their visions. After what seemed like forever, the spasms stopped.

"Carver! Carver, did you just see-"

"Yeah...Just see some weird shit?! YEAH."

"...How is that even possible?"

"Who knows?" The soldier saw the engineer panting hard. "Hey. Don't freak out."

Isaac looked around the place to try and re-regain his bearings. He looked up into the sky and saw it glow with a really bright red hue, much brighter than the one next to the Moon. He saw some meteorites falling towards the planet far away from where they were. It would've looked so pretty if it didn't look so daunting. He then looked around at ground level and saw that some systems were still functional around him.

"We should use this Bench and Suit Kiosk to load up," he informed, "just in case."

While John loaded up on his weapons, Isaac got into the Kiosk and changed into the Hostile Environment Suit that he acquired beforehand. He walked over to the Bench, feeling fresh in the new suit, and got to work on his weapons. He didn't even notice Carver leave to change into another suit. Once he was done, he stationed himself outside the Kiosk, waiting for the hispanic. When the soldier got out of it, Isaac couldn't help but feel...a tad bit awkward.

"...Nice suit." he said once his eyes landed on his partner's...Hostile Environment Suit.

Carver's cheeks lit up with the tiniest shade of red once he realized what he was talking about. "...Thanks," he replied. "...You too..."

"Thanks."

John's lips curved upward in a smirk. "Might as well be called the 'Twinsie Force'."

That earned a small chuckle from Isaac.

Exiting from the other side of the room, they encounter, surprise surprise, more snow, and...wait...isn't that...Norton?

"Norton." Isaac said suddenly. "No...you're dead!" The engineer's eyes went wide as he continued to stare at the asshole who stole his girlfriend, clad in that fucking blue jacket he liked to wear and clutching his right arm while slouching in pain. "Hey! Hey Norton!"

Without thinking, he walked up towards the lone figure. Carver went to call out to his partner...but it was already too late. The hallucination ended and instead of a human Norton, he saw a Necro-Norton. Both persons assembled their helmets and lifted their guns.

"Oh god, no!" Isaac yelled. "NO FUCKING WAY! We killed you!" He then saw spitters and pukers burst out of the vents on the side. "We killed all of you!" They wasted no time in...wasting the monsters.

"Where the fuck did they come from?" Caver cursed.

"Either we're actually crazy...or we didn't stop the Markers." Clarke replied. His eyes then went wide. "Oh god...Ellie..."

"No...I-Isaac! We have to get back! We have to warn Earth!"

"We need a ship. FAST." He then saw another door at the corner of his eye. "Come on!" He hacked the door panel and went inside; his partner hot on his heels.

" _They are hungry. They are coming._ "

"Hungry?" Isaac asked into the air.

" _They are hungry. They are coming._ "

"Shit," John murmured. "Where's that coming from?"

" _They are hungry. They are coming._ "

The chant continued to repeat as they made their way to the door on the other side of the room. Just as they were about to reach it, however, Isaac's brain felt like it was about to burst, as his consciousness was sent deep into his thoughts. He saw his home planet: Earth. Bright and unscathed. He was getting weary as he turned around to see the rest of what he was thinking. Markers. Markers everywhere he could see. The space around him shone in a deep red, further adding to the general creepiness. On top of a small platform made of candles stood a male figure. The only thing he had on in terms of clothing were black shorts. His arms were bandaged as well as part of his head. He also had iron spikes protruding out from his back and hands. No biggie.

And in the background were the seven Moons he saw before, silently watching and listening.

" _We are all awake now,_ " the figure's voice boomed throughout his mind. " _Awake and hungry. But where is it?_ "

Isaac gulped when the figure stepped forward. " _Take us home, Isaac. Make. Us. Whole._ "

With an orange flash, he disappeared, and shadowy Necromorph figures took his place. He fired at them until he was brought back into reality. He just saw his partner reload his gun and a Necromorph fall over when he coughed.

"Isaac?!" John worried. "What happened?"

"The Moon network...They're awake."

"... _What?!_ "

"This moon must've contacted the others before we could kill it.

"...then we REALLY have to get to Earth and warn everyone!"

"But I don't think they know where Earth is yet."

"GOOD! Then let's hurry the fuck up and find a ship!"

* * *

Carver's right arm swung over the edge and pushed himself off of the last step of the ladder, safely lying on the snow on top. Once he stood up, he reached down, grabbed Isaac's arm, and hoisted him up, much to the engineer's surprise.

"How strong are you?!" Isaac yelped.

"I can probably pick you up and carry you in my arms," he replied matter-of-factly.

Clarke didn't know why, but he glad he had his helmet on since his face felt a bit warm when he said those words. He found himself involuntarily imagining walking off into the sunset with Carver, hand in hand, towards a warm beach.

The soldier tapped his shoulder and pointed to something at the distance. Isaac looked off in that direction, and while he was distracted, John picked him up and held him in his arms. They both chuckled as he swung him side-to-side. The warm feeling was at an all time high and his heart was beating really fast.

"I can bench around 300 pounds."

With that phrase, he was brought back into reality, and the cold enveloped him once again.

_What the FUCK was that?_

"C'mon," John said. "I see the Sovereign Colonies command center over there."

When the soldier turned away, Isaac took it as an opportunity to hit himself in the head.

_Fuck, Isaac! What the hell wrong with you?!_

His thoughts were stopped short when he heard the sound of a shockpoint drive being activated. The two looked up into the sky and saw a ship boost off into the dark red skies.

"Ah CRAP!" Carver said. "There goes another one! We're gonna get stranded down here."

The engineer swallowed. "It was closer. There might be more nearby."

When they entered the building, their RIG intercepted an open channel transmission.

" _Can anyone hear me? My co-pilot just threw himself into the engine and ground the turbine to a halt! Everyone is losing their minds! I can see other ships taking off...Why won't anyone respond? If anyone can hear me, we're on the roof of the vehicle depot in the command center courtyard!_ "

They looked at each other and nodded. They'll get a ship, but they need to act fast before anyone else gets there.

When they went deeper into the building, they found a Unitologist soldier with a shotgun in his right hand. It was clear that his mental state was nowhere near sane when they saw him shaking. Isaac and John took a step closer and the soldier yelled, pulled to shogun to his head, and pulled the trigger. The Necro slayers yelped in surprise when the dark red liquid splattered all over the walls behind him. The body flopped to the floor while the life leaked out of him, gun clicking onto the floor.

Once they got over the initial shock, the partners carefully stepped over all of the mess and went into the main room...where two soldiers stood side-by-side with knives at their throats.

"Before we do this," one of them said, "I just wanted to tell you something, Jack."

"Yeah?" the other said. "What is it then, George?"

"I-I always loved you. With all of my heart." It was clear that George started to leak tears.

"Oh...okay." Jack's head started to dip forward.

"Don't you love me back?"

"Well...no...sorry. I had a wife, you know..."

Then George took his knife and sliced Jack's neck. Once the corpse collapsed, his eyes started to freely flow the salty water.

"W-well...I guess th-this is g-goodbye, my l-love...Death is o-only the beginning...for u-us..." then finally put the knife to his throat and slashed it wide open.

Isaac started to feel really depressed. It's such a shame that the person he loved didn't return the feeling, even at death's doorstep. This is why he hated Norton when he found out that he was dating his girlfriend. The feeling of rejected love was heartbreaking to him, and it sucked to see it happen to someone else.

John went over to the two fresh bodies and knelt beside them, careful to not step into the blood. "Poor bastard..," he muttered.

Clarke deviated his stare from the bloodbath to the three-dimensional map of the snow base to see that another soldier was rocking back and forth on the table.

"They are hungry," he repeated. "They are coming."

"He's saying it too," the engineer muttered.

"They are hungry. They are coming..."

The pair made their way around the table and through another door.

"It's nice to know that we're not the only ones going fucking nuts..," John observed.

"The vehicle depot is right outside," Isaac said. "The ship could still be there."

"It better be."

Once they made it outside, they saw the light...of the sun. And the ship perched on top of a building.

"There it is!" Carver exclaimed in relief.

Yet, his relief was short lived.

All of a sudden, the world turned orange and Necromorphs appeared out of nowhere. The pair shot towards the threats, but they kept teleporting around when the bullets hit them. After a couple of seconds, the hallucination ended.

"Oh man..," Isaac breathed. "When is this going to stop?"

"When we get the hell out of here!" John replied. "Do you think the ship'll fly?"

The engineer saw the long tube extending from the ship to a large tank in the ground. "Looks like the Unitologists were refueling it. Help me find the fuel switch."

They climbed over the tube in the middle and found the control console. Isaac typed in a few things and activated the flow of gas. They made their way over the the tall ladder and started to climb. Unfortunately, Isaac slipped and fell on top of his partner. His chest laid on John's, and Isaac...couldn't be more comfortable. The warm feeling made him forget all about the biting cold this planet featured.

"Good job, butterfingers," John teased, while he pushed him off into the snow. Clarke's distaste of the sudden coldness made his face cringe. He wanted more of that...But he couldn't, since the soldier started to climb the ladder; Isaac following suit.

Once they got to the top, the engineer disassembled his helmet and tried to open up the door of the ship.

"Of course," he muttered when the panel buzzed with an error. Carver went closer to him to look at the problem. "Here, it's just a little..."

The soldier slammed the butt of his gun against the panel, resulting in another buzz in protest. Clarke made his way to the back of the ship, where he found a problem with the engines. "Oh no."

His partner disassembled his helmet as well. "Oh no...what?"

"The shockdrive on this thing is out. It's only got impulse."

John paused. "So...we're stuck."

"No...just...uh, just stuck on this star system. We can make it as far as the flotilla. We'll just have to find something up there to play with. We'll make it home. Don't worry." He climbed into the ship along with Carver following close behind.

"Worry? I don't know if I'm dead or alive, what's to worry...?"

Once they were both inside, the door closed and the unscathed engines fired up. Isaac went up to the auto-pilot console, set the course for the flotilla, and sat down next to John in the bay room. The ship powered up and blasted into the sky, leaving a trail of powdered snow in its wake.

* * *

The black space stretched endlessly around the white glow of the planet. The Moon was in its side, evidently making an crater as large as the planet the two were trying to reach. Their ship dodged many debris still floating around the flotilla that contained the Roanoke, the Greely, the Brusilov, and the Terra Nova - which was the ship they were about to dock.

"Let's pull in here," Isaac said while the ship directed itself into the opened up cradle section of the mass driver.

"The Terra Nova?" John asked. "Why?"

"I'm reading one of the Unitologist transponders," he replied while motioning to the orange screen beside the cockpit door. "It's coming from the cradle." He assembled his helmet and went to the bay door on the side, Carver following close behind him and doing the same with his head piece.

"What happened to the other ships?"

Once the ship stopped, the two braced themselves for the space suction, and when Isaac tapped a screen beside him, making the door slide open with a screech, they felt the oxygen vent into the dark void in front of them as they tried to not get flung into the massive object around their ship.

"Blown up in the minefield, I guess," Clarke replied once again as he regained his bearings, and adjusted to the weightlessness he felt. "C'mon. Let's take a look."

Their thrusters blasted to life. The light from their boots shone against the surroundings like a nightlight scaring off the monsters under your bed.

"Hey...HEY!" Carver exclaimed as he pointed to a damaged ship. "There-There's the ship!"

The engineer assessed the damage from afar. "Must've been hit by a mine." He noticed something else, too. "Looks like someone removed the shockpoint drive, too."

"Haha...of course."

"He must've taken it inside." Isaac increased the power of his thrusters, making his way into the cargo bay. "C'mon."

The small runway lit up with its tiny lights, blinking in time so it looked like it was traveling further into the ship. The Necro-slayers flew through the air-less surroundings, eventually making it to an airlock. Carver TK'd the crank and the circular doors burst open. They made their way inside, and when they were in far enough, the two-hundred year computer sensed that the area was clear, closed and sealed the door. Oxygen and dust then filled the room with a loud hiss as it automatically pressurized. Once it finished, Clarke TK'd the next crank and made his way inside.

The intercom system then buzzed into life. " _Hello? If anyone out there is still sane, you have to finish the plan! We thought we could use this ship's reactor to power our shockpoint drive, but they've taken it to the Conning Tower at Mid Station and LOCKED ME OUT!_ " He had to calm down for a second, inhaling deeply before continuing. " _If you can get to the bridge, there should be a way to defeat the lockdown, but you'll need to-_ " he paused for a second and the sound of a blade was heard. " _No!_ "

Then a deep, booming voice filled the air " _Time for you to join the church, brother._ "

" _NOOO! GET OFF ME! STOP!_ " Then the sound of steel meeting flesh was heard. Then a scream filled with pain and horror. Then the intercom clicked off. The two had to take a second for their shudders to wear off before stepping further into the room, letting the door behind them to close.

"It's-It's not too late!" Carver stammered. "They have a shockpoint drive!"

"Come on!" Isaac said. "Let's see if we could break this lockdown."

They made their way over to an elevator and took it to level two. They stood awkwardly beside each other on the small room; shoulders brushed against each other and Isaac's heart began to race once again, due to that warm feeling he enjoyed so much. As he look at his friend and partner from the corner of his vision, he wondered why every time they were in close proximity, he just wanted to touch him. Wanted to feel him. His lips on his own. The soul patch against his short beard. The feel of his arms around him, tight and loving, like a cuddly bear; the type of embrace he felt safe in. He wanted to smash his bare chest on the other's, feeling his warmth in full force-

_What. The. FUCK. Seriously, why do you think these things?!_

Isaac sighed as he looked away, mentally beating himself to death for thinking that yet again. He was glad that the ride to the next floor was short so he could space away - at least slightly more - from the soldier.

Then he saw the candles. Isaac's head hurt when his eyes witnessed the soft white glow and the slowly evaporating wax. It reminded him of what happened on Titan Station: all the sadness, all the desperation, all the horror. It made his stomach turn. It made him break out into a cold sweat. It made his heart pick up the pace just a tad.

The lights lined the tiny corridor that lead up to an unlocked door. When they opened it up, they saw the bridge with the pilot and copilot seats looking as fine as always. They started to hear chants echo off of the walls scrawled with Marker drawings. Carver's right hand travelled to Isaac's chest, halting him from moving forward, then brought his index finger to the front of his helmet once he got his attention. The engineer got the message, and kept his lips sealed.

They sneaked around the corner so they could hear the words better.

"Take our hands that we may feed you. Take our eyes that we may see you. Take our minds that we may serve you. We will live forever."

This repeated again and again and again before they decided to venture forth into the room, and they instantly wished that they didn't.

Two human figures crouched, faces close to each other, chanting this...chant, over and over. Instead of having hands, they had blades jammed into their wrist sockets, mirroring what's on a Necromorph. Their backs and chests are riddled with scars and bullet wounds. The blood already coagulated meant that these men have not been treated for a long time. Their shirts were around their head, and it looked like the eye sockets were empty according to the way the fabric stuck to their sweaty faces.

Carver accidentally stepped on a broken piece of glass, the sound of cracking filled the entire cabin. The two guys on the floor charged at the sound, forcing the Necro-slayers to slay humans acting...like Necros. It was a thousand times easier, though. Just cutting off the head did the trick rather than cutting off all the limbs.

"This shit's messed up," Carver said to no one in particular.

Isaac reached the control center and hacked it to unlock a path to the Conning Tower.

" _Floor three is now open,_ " the computer-generated voice said.

"Now what?" Carver asked.

"Let's head back to the elevator," Clarke replied. "We could take it to the tram station."

They did exactly that, taking it to the third floor. Once the door opened, they saw corpses that had huge blades for hands, much like spitters, hung up against archways, basically blocking that way entirely. It forced them to go down a ladder, where they heard more chants. They stayed silent when they opened the door.

"Take our hands that we may feed you. Take our eyes that we may see you. Take our minds that we may serve you. We will live forever."

Many more of those blades-for-hands-and-shirt-on-head guys were crouched over chanting this and in the middle is the same guy that Isaac saw in his hallucination back on planet. He held a large blade in his right hand and had a normal Unitologist soldier in front of him, on his knees. His head was slouched down, as if under complete submission. The candles continued here too.

Isaac let out a long sigh and walked in between of all the chanting men and towards the head honcho in the middle. Carver stayed put, watching his partner do this stunt.

"Isaac, what the fuck are you doing?" John whispered out loud.

"One sec," he replied as he finally reached the back of the soldier crouched down.

The guy with the spikes coming out of his back didn't appear to see him, or maybe he didn't care, but he lifted his blade and spoke in his loud, booming voice.

" _Now my brother, you too will become one of us._ " He picked up both his hands and the soldier on the floor kept on whimpering "No..."

" _A true believer..._ " the guy said and then proceeded to saw off the soldier's hands. After every stroke of the blade, the two felt their surroundings flash orange. Then, after the third stroke, everyone disappeared, then a scream sounded and a bunch of the worshippers charged at them. They made quick work of all of them, and their hallucination lasted around half a minute.

"What just happened..?" Carver whispered.

Isaac started to pant. "It was real..," he whispered back. "It had to be...right?"

"Ah fuck it. We're getting out of here. Where's the Conning Tower?"

"At the mid station. We need to take the tram."

As if on cue, the tram entered the airlock and docked at their floor. They got on, selected "Mid Station" and the tram started to move forward.

At that moment, the intercom buzzed to life once again.

" _They are coming, my brothers_ ,"the same deep voice boomed through the mic. " _They are coming and they are hungry. Is your soul prepared to feed them? Or will you be judged unworthy and cast aside? Join me as we build a new church together - not of brick and mortar, but of flesh and blood. John me in a tribute so glorious that the heavens themselves will take notice._

" _They are coming, my brothers. And we will be ready._ " The intercom clicked off just as they arrived at mid station.

"I can't wait to get off of this thing..," Carver whispered. "This guy is turning everyone into basket cases."

Once they got onto the platform, a familiar video played with Danik talking about how corrupt the government is.

" _Brothers and sisters,_ " he began, " _the age of man...is at an end. We've become too many with too little to go around..._ " It continued on, but they just didn't bother to pay attention to it. They walked by it to enter an unlocked elevator to the side. Since this one was only meant for one person to stand in it comfortably, they were forced to stand unusually close to each other, much to Isaac's discomfort...and comfort. It's a guilty pleasure to feel that feeling once again. He feels like he's accepting it more and more every time the warmth spreads throughout his body. He was about to go into another...rather...inappropriate daydream when the booming voice sounded yet again.

" _I see you approaching,_ " he began. " _Don't be afraid. All are welcome to be a part of our church...but what part will you give? An ear that you may hear their message? A tongue that you may spread their word? Or a head that you may understand their divine wisdom?_ "

"Seriously," Carver shivered, "this guy fucking creeps me out."

Isaac wanted to place a hand over his shoulder, to say that everything will be okay. That he would protect him and that if the guy got anywhere close to him, that he would stop at nothing until he's gone from his worries forever. That if he feels lonely, he could always come to him for comfort. He had to restrain himself, however. Since 1: it would be awkward and 2: he fears that it would break the (small) bond they already had. Also, he needed to get his facts straight. Literally. What's up with all of these John-oriented thoughts? He needed to get to the bottom of this before he did something that one of his messed up daydreams suggested...Not like he would mind anyway...he was an incredible human being and quite ruggedly handsome after all-

_Shit...Well there it is...again._

He sighed again, and stepped a quarter-inch closer to get a little bit more of that warmth he liked so much. If he did feel good, might as well indulge in it, right?

Once the doors opened, Carver was the first one out, followed by Clarke, who was fairly close behind. The candles were there yet again, seemingly lining a path for them towards a large door. Once they went through it, the chanting continued. It seemed to never end with these people. The worshippers were everywhere this time. They seemed to cover up every space available and place their hands...er...blades together in prayer. The pair might never know what possessed them to follow such a sadistic religion, but they do know that it wasn't a wise decision. They looked up, and at the top of the staircase stood the leader once again.

Isaac took aim this time and fired a round at him and their hallucination ended, revealing a Necromorph in his place. Then a bunch of other Necromorphs started to show up and started to swamp them with danger. Their hearts raced, their ammo wasted away one by one, round by round, and their minds became more corrupt.

Then their surroundings became orange and the leader appeared once again, having a staticy aura around him. " _The time of ascension is at hand,_ " the booming voice filled their thoughts. " _Prepare yourselves the way that you may be found. And so we prepare. We purge the sins of our bodies and we lift up our voices to them that we may be found._ " Then he disappeared.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?!" Isaac screamed into the air, hoping to get at least a sliver of hope to know what's going on here.

"Isaac..," John cooed. "Hey, hey, hey, it wasn't real!

"Are we doing the right thing, Carver? ARE WE?!"

"Don't let them into your head, man. They're trying to confuse us. Look, the only thing that matters is getting that shockpoint drive and getting home, alright? Alright, you got it?!"

Isaac didn't bother to respond.

* * *

Once the elevator doors opened, the top room of the Conning Tower came into view. The brilliant white light of the planet shone through the cracked and aging piece of glass, giving the entire place a spooky and mysterious look. It didn't help that there was a small Marker statue extending from the floor to the top of the mass of glass. There was a glowing light at the base of it and sure enough, it was the shockpoint drive...right next to - you got it - more candles.

"Look, there it is!" Carver exclaimed while pointing to the contraption.

They made their way over to it and then Clarke's head felt like it was about to burst again. He was on the mass of rock again with Marker's surrounding him. He looked back and he saw Earth...but it looked like it was on fire. His stomach turned when he thought about all of the horrified families trying desperately to escape the inferno. He's pretty sure that's not the case in real life...right? He hasn't lead them towards his home planet, so why would he think that the demonic Moons have reached it?

He turned away from the land mass to see the leader again. This time, he was holding two blades and was slowly walking towards him. Isaac's first instinct was to shoot at him, so that's what he did...The problem was that every time a bullet was supposed to go through the Unitologist, he'd just teleport to another spot closer to him. Good thing he didn't run at him because whenever that guy came too close for comfort, he could just run away from him and continue to shoot.

After a while, the engineer just gave up on shooting him and just decide to try and figure out another way to get out of this hole. At that instant, the Marker behind him started to glow yellow...and then it hit him. Back on Titan Station, when he had to get Nicole out of his head for good, he had to shoot the Marker that was glowing behind her. Maybe...

He took aim at the Marker and shot it. Every time a round hit it, it glowed brighter for a second, before it eventually exploded into shadows, just like before.

" _Show us the way to Earth, Isaac._ " he creepy voice spoke up and echoed through his thoughts. Then he was brought back into reality. He had to take a breath while Carver finished off the last Necromorph in the room.

"Isaac?" he asked while he walked over to his partner. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah..," said person replied. "I'm fine..."

Carver reached out to the small shockpoint drive and clipped it to his belt.

"Okay, we got it, let's go," he said and started to walk back towards the elevator.

Isaac thought about the words the leader said to him.  _Show us the way to Earth, Isaac._  He can't let that happen. "We're not going back." he replied

"YES we are."

"If any one of us returns, they're going to follow." He then saw the drive on John's waist. "We have to destroy the shockpoint drive." He went to reach out to it, but the soldier swatted his hand away.

"LIKE. HELL. We're marching down to the reactor right now so we can install this thing!"

"We're taking it to the reactor, all right, then we're going to throw it in and destroy this ship! No one goes to Earth, Carver. NO ONE!"

The hispanic one breathed a slow sigh. "Uh huh. We'll see about that."

Keeping their distance, they made their way to the elevator, pressed the button to start up the elevator, and the doors closed, confining the the pair into the small room. They avoided eye contact the whole ride down, in turn avoiding the awkwardness. The atmosphere was quiet but tense. Their breathing could be heard alongside the quiet whirring of the elevator, and it just made the air even tenser. Then Isaac's head hurt a bit. He placed his right hand against his helmet in an effort to suppress it, but then he heard voices.

" _His name's Isaac,_ " a voice said. " _I've got us here two days ago, and ever since he's been unconscious with quite a big gash on his back._ " That definitely sounded like Carver, but when he looked over towards the other, he just continued to look away. Then his back started to hurt a bit and it felt a bit exposed.

" _Damn...that's really bad,_ " another (unrecognizable) voice said.

" _I'm really worried about him. Is he going to be okay?_ "

Those words echoed throughout his thoughts. It made his heartbeat quicken. It made him break into a cold sweat. John Carver...worried about him? Surely what he's hearing is not real...even though he wished and hoped that it was. The soldier buried himself so deep in his own despairs that it's close to impossible to try and talk to him about his troubles; to help him overcome. Seeing any openness from him is like a second Christmas to Isaac since he loved helping others. If the engineer job didn't work out, he would've became a psychologist.

Yet, ever since the Ishimura, that fact is irony in its purest.

" _What have you done to the wound since you seen it like this?_ " the other voice asked.

" _I applied a bit of raw somatic gel on it to try and seal it up for now,_ " John replied. " _I'm not an expert at these thin-_ "

" _I think that you've actually saved Isaac's ability to walk again._ "

_Well isn't that nice?_  Isaac thought as he smiled to himself...until he glanced up and saw his partner continuing to be angry. The sight made him frown and cross his arms over his chest; feeling insecure about being next to this man. The door to the elevator finally opened up and they walked out of it, making sure to keep a comfortable distance away from each other.

Once they walked up to the small lift they used before to call it down, their surroundings went orange again and the leader appeared on the lift. They backed up and fired at him, but since the bullets went straight through him, they opted to not waste anymore ammo and to continue to back up out of harm's way.

" _The sky will part and we will draw them up,_ " the voice returned in their thoughts, " _and they will be devoured, and we become one with them. Complete the church, complete this ship and lead us home. Make us whole._ " Then the walls turned back to the usual rusty grey and the figure vanished again. This whole thing was beginning to become a pain in Isaac's ass and he had enough of it.

"Carver," he began, "you're wrong about this!"

"Wh-h-hat the-" his partner replied. "Isaac, your brain has been fucked ever since the Ishimura! One way or another, I'm installing that shockpoint drive!"

Even though he apparently saved Isaac in his thoughts or whatever, he had to push those thoughts off of his mind, yet it became a difficult task. How can he forget about Carver worrying about _him_? "I-I'm not going to let you kill Ellie!"

"You were just fine letting her die as Danik's hostage!"

"You knew what was at stake! It's your fault the Moons woke up in the first place!"

"Yeah? Fuck you!"

_Yeah, I'd like that...Wait...goddamnit, Isaac..._ Even if this discussion was heated and laced with anger, Isaac found it impossible to stay mad at the soldier. He felt as if he never let his anger fly at him at all. Instead of that, he felt unbelievable amounts of...lust? Why would he be thinking about that at a time like this? He needed to destroy the shockpoint drive and get out of all these hallucinations in one piece...I guess his mind is really fucked up then.

He tried to push the feelings out, but it was an urge that was the equivalent to that of a teenage boy having to masturbate. Undeniably an impossible task to over _come_.

They made their way through a couple of doorways until they arrived in front of another elevator, but that when yet another hallucination featuring the Moons kicked in again.

"Uuuugh!" the engineer grunted once it passed. "Ah shit!

"It's getting worse!" his partner chimed in.

"Just stay out of my way." Clarke then proceeded to push past Carver. "I don't want to shoot you!"

"Yeah...you try it, asshole. I'll drop you if that's what it takes!"

Needless to say, his skin broke out in goosebumps from the threat. He decided to keep his distance as John practically punched the elevator console to bring them back down to the tram, but he just wanted to be closer to feel that warmth again. He wanted to feel him up, make him his own, yet, that's probably not going to happen at all. They're both straight. They've both fucked women. He had a wife and child. Isaac had a couple of girlfriends in his lifetime. He should just give up on all of these thoughts. Although, he felt like that's going to be a major challenge for him.

They made their way over to the transport when their elevator arrived, selected the Aft Station on the control console and it started to leave the dock. The front window opened up, showing the space, debris, and the bright planet underneath the hulking ship. It's a change of scenery after all of the candles. There were so many candles, it was a wonder how they got all of them in the first place. And some of them had putrid scents coming out of them that made Isaac's head spin.

The intercom clicked. " _The plan was dangerous but simple,"_  the voice from when they first got on the ship echoed throughout the cabin. _"I fashioned an adapter that hooked the shockpoint drive up the the reactor. By overloading the reactor core, we thought we could generate enough energy to power it. I guess now we'll never know. The madness has torn us apart. We stopped listening to each other, stopped working together. Sad that I should carry my faith my whole life only to lose it right before I die._

_There is no hope for a future, no rebirth. Just death...for all of us._ " It clicked off.

This struck a chord in Isaac's heart. He could feel the pain and despair in his voice and he felt bad for him. The vibes that emanated from the other told him that he felt the same way.

" _Now arriving: Engineering and Repair,_ " the computer-man-voice-thing piped up

They made their way to the only unlocked door and found themselves in the main oxygen room. Steam hissed out of the machinery as it pumped the recycled air throughout the ship. They made their way over to the elevator that led into the reactor room and waited for the moving room to arrive to their floor.

"The reactor should be right up here," Carver said. "Now, when we get there-"

"You're wrong, Carver!" Isaac disagreed just as much as he hated to disagree with this man. "Going home is just what they want us to do!"

"Would you just stop and listen to yourself, man? You're a fucking lunatic!"

"You're not setting foot in this engine room!" Isaac suppressed a small tear for a second before continuing. "O-Only one of u-us is getting out of this room…a-alive…"

Carver back away a bit before lifting his gun at Isaac's face. "It is gonna be your funeral, man!"

_Fuck._

At that instant, the lights flickered off for a couple of seconds, then flipped back on and his partner was nowhere to be found. Then he heard gunshots coming from behind him. He looked over his shoulder quickly and saw that his partner aimed at him from the opposite side of the room.

_That's it…_  Isaac thought to himself as he dodged some bullets and took cover behind a railing.  _I'm going to have to kill John…_

He ran out of cover firing his chaingun, successfully landing in some shots due to the grunts his partner emitted. When he thought he emptied about twenty shots-or-so into him, he vanished from view.

What the…

Then he heard some more gun shots from the back and turned around to see not one but  **two**  Carvers firing at him. He took cover once again from the rain of bullets.

"You're a dead man, Isaac! You hear me?!"

_Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck._

"I-I...I won't let you lead them home!"

"I will do whatever the  **fuck**  I have to! I'm gonna find a way back!"

He didn't want to kill him to save Earth...but he had to…

_I'm so sorry, John…_

He pushed his lustful desires out of his brain as he pounced out from cover.

"N-No! No one leaves!" Isaac screamed as he put a couple of bullets into both of their brains. They vanished once they hit their mark.

"Just...hold still, goddammit!"

Every time Isaac shot all of the Carvers in a room, they come back with even more than before. It came to the point that he's just let them kill him because he felt like he was making no progress with this fight.

_Wait..isn't this a hallucination?_  He finally figured it out and stopped firing, but that's when a bullet clinked off of his helmet. He quickly took cover to avoid getting shot at the moment.

_What the-_

He was then taken out of his thoughts when his head exploded with pain once more. He was transported to the rock with all of the markers. He looked up at the Earth and most of the planet looked like to be on fire and all of the Moons drew closer and closer to it. The flames in all of the candles grew so big that it practically engulfed the wax in its blaze. The Markers glowed bright, almost blinding Isaac.

_Oh no...not here again..._

He looked to his left and noticed that Carver was on all fours and slowly got up to his feet after rubbing his neck free of the dulling pain he might've been experiencing.

" _The Earth draws near,_ " the booming voice of the leader echoed throughout his thoughts. " _Even now we can feel it. Teeming with life, teeming with Markers. From each world we devour, a new brother will rise and be made whole. Our network will grow and we will live forever._ " The leader himself them came out of the shadows and started to tread slowly closer and closer to them.

"What...the...hell?!" Carver cried in disbelief and Isaac turned to face him. The soldier then saw Isaac and picked up his gun to aim it at his head. Clarke was going to do the same until he saw a Necromorph shadow book it straight for his partner.

"LOOK OUT, JOHN!" he screamed and raised his gun to shoot at the form just as it jumped to claw at his chest. The hispanic one jumped back slightly at the scare and stared at Isaac for a little bit until he raised his gun to shoot at the engineer once again. This time though, it he wasn't aiming directly at him, but right beside as a shadow was about to pounce on Isaac's back.

They watched each other's backs as they slayed shadows after shadows after shadows. It seemed that they were going nowhere with their efforts since one respawns to take the place of the one they just killed. Then Isaac remembered about what happened before and decided to look around for a glowing yellow Marker again. Sure enough he found one and shot at it until it exploded and the leader slouched over on his knees, screaming out in pain.

"He's hurt!" John observed.

"Not for long...Shoot him!" They took aim at him until he screamed again and got back up for round two. They did this two more times until the leader exploded into shadows and evaporated into the air. Then their vision was fuzzy with what looked to be a red snowstorm, and then the leader's voice piped up once again.

" _You can kill the prophet, but you can't kill the god! Your chance to warn Earth has come and gone. We are coming. We are hungry. We are here._ "

Then they were brought back into reality and they found themselves sprawled out on the floor right next to one another. Isaac got up to a kneel and helped Carver get up into a seating position by placing a hand under his back and another on his abdominals and pushed his entire top-half upright. His hands were overwhelmed in the warm feeling he loved so much and he let his hands linger a bit longer until Carver lifted his hand to caress the back of his neck once again.

"You okay?" Clarke asked.

"Isaac..." John cried. "You're alive! I...I thought that you were-"

"You were right, Carver. You were right."

"They were just trying to slow us down! They knew where Earth was all along!"

Isaac's hand went up to rub John's back tenderly. "Come on. We have to hurry. They're headed there right now."

"...Hey…" The soldier disassembled his helmet and the engineer did the same. They looked in each other's eyes as Carver continued to speak. "We're...really doing this?"

Isaac then placed his left hand on Carver's thigh. "Yeah, Carver...We're going home. Now let's get that shockpoint drive installed."

They then saw the leader on all fours slouching over in pain looking utterly and epically defeated beyond belief.

"...They will...find us…," the leader muttered loud enough for the other two to hear. "...They will devour...us...We will be made...whole…"

Carver then quickly grabbed his gun and shot a round into his head, splattering his insides all over the wall and the floor.

"Fuck you!" he added.

"Carver!"

"How much trouble has that fucker given us?"

"Yes. I know but…" Isaac sighed. "Whatever. Let's go." He stood up then gave a hand to Carver to take and hoisted him up. They took the elevator they were at before this whole thing started. The two leaned on opposite sides in the small room and Isaac looked at John's scarred face from time to time. Isaac had a pain in his head once again and his right hand went to to try and soothe it. That's when he heard the voices again.

" _Do we have any type of first aid kits here?_ " the unrecognizable voice piped up.

" _No,_ " Carver-that-is-in-his-mind replied once again. " _I tried looking everywhere, but all I could find is the gel._ "

Isaac then felt like he was being wrapped up in a certain type of material for some reason. It kind of felt like cotton.

" _This would have to do for now,_ " the other voice said. " _So how did I get here?_ "

" _Look outside._ " A pause. " _I was building some weapons when I heard a big boom. I looked outside and I saw that something had crashed there. I put on my suit and decided to check it out and I found you and your friend there unconscious in a Unitologist ship._ "

" _Thanks. I appreciate it. Wait- I think there should be a First Aid kit in there, actually._ "

There was a pause and a wave of uncertainty washed over him. He didn't know where it came from, but he did know that it wasn't from him.

" _D-do you want me to go get it?_ " Carver asked, a hint of hesitancy in his voice.

" _If you would like to…_ "

Isaac then felt even more uncertainty around him.

" _Don't worry about it,_ " the other voice told mind-Carver, " _I'll take good care of him._ "

This struck another chord in Isaac's heart. This line confirmed ins theory that played with his heart since the elevator ride after they got the shockpoint drive.

His partner really did care about him...

About his well-being...

About what he thought...

About, well, everything about him.

His mind then went into overdrive. He imagined them standing really close together.

Naked.

And then Carver slams his lips against Isaac's and backs him up against a wall. Hands explore every inch of skin as Isaac closes his eyes to enjoy all of the feelings. He then felt the other lift him up off of the ground and then positioned his dick over Isaac's hole.

"Carver…"

"Mmmhmm?"

The engineer was brought back into reality when the Carver in front of him responded to his whisper. He felt his teenage boy itch returning and his member stiffen. It's a good thing that the metal plating over his crotch concealed it...but at the same time, it hurt like a bitch.

Isaac immediately reassembled his helmet when he felt a dark blush come onto his face. "What? Oh - nothing…" As if on cue, the door opened and he shuffled out of the enclosed space as fast as he could.

"Okay…" Carver replied as he reassembled his helmet as well. They entered a large room with a rather large pole in the middle of it.

The reactor.

"So where do we put the shockpoint drive?" John asked his companion.

Isaac had to regain his bearings before replying. "Um...The-the Unitologists must have setup an adapter." He looked around until he spotted a console at the far left of the room. "I think I see it over there."

They made their way over to it and found the circular adapter right next to the activation terminal. Carver unclipped the drive from his belt and placed it into the chamber. Its glass encasing closed once his hand was out of the way.

"Okay!" John said. "Let's see what happens when we fire it up."

Isaac pressed a few buttons and then pressed activate. They then heard a loud hissing sound and the automated voice chimed in. " _Maintenance mode enabled. Opening containment shield._ " The core started to open up revealing three spinning sections. The top and the bottom rotating right and the middle rotating left. They were moving quite fast. And in the middle of each section, was a glowing green opening. Every time they passed, it blinded Isaac with how bright it was. Suddenly they felt like the gravity was slowly evaporating from the room.

" _Warning: Reactor is active,_ " the automated voice continued. " _Harmful radioactivity detected. Please maintain a safe distance from the core._ "

"Is it working?" John asked as he backed away from the reactor.

"No!" Clarke replied. "We need to double the output!"

"How?"

Isaac had to think for a second. "If we can find some fuel orbs, we should be able to throw them directly into the core, and force a power surge!"

"Is that gonna work?"

"Yeah...if the ship doesn't blow up first!"

"Oh good."

From the corner of his eye, Isaac noticed Carver TK a blue crank at the side, and when he opened it, a glowing orb floated out of the hatch. As the engineer TK-grabbed the orb, the soldier stasised the reactor, slowing it down. When an opening came into view, Isaac then launched it into the light. Once the orb met with the radioactive chemicals, a loud bang sounded throughout the room.

" _Warning: Reactor overload,_ " the automated voice said. " _Venting initiated._ "

Glowing yellow rods then popped out of the base of the core with a hiss. They then shot at the three that popped up, each exploding with a small boom. " _Venting interrupted. Warning: Reactor capacity critical._ "

"Think that did it!" Carver cried.

"Not yet! We need to do it a couple more times!"

And that's what they did. On the third try, the reactor burst into a brilliant green light, filling the room with a green mist as it spun faster and faster. " _Reactor overload. Reactor overload. Deadly radiation levels detected. All hands abandon ship. All hands abandon ship._ "

"Isaac!" Carver yelled over a RIG Link, since the room was now unbearably loud to just shot at each other. "That radiation, it's gonna burn right through us!"

"We have to get to the bridge and initiate the shock before this thing tears itself apart!" Isaac replied.

They made their way over to a blinking blue doorway. Their hearts raced as they waited for the circular door to slide open. It was painfully slow as they quickly boosted away from the overloading Reactor. Once it closed behind them. They landed on the metal platform underneath them. It was facing another circular door that had a red and yellow paint scheme on it.

" _Exhaust port twelve primed,_ " the automated voice said once again. " _Stand by to discharge._ "

"What is this thing?!" Carver observed.

"An exhaust tube," Isaac replied. "As soon as that door opens, you hit your jets and burn them all the way to the bridge! You got that?!"

"Yeah!"

They went over to the console to the right and pressed the activate button. " _Discharging,_ " the voice said and the platform began to violently shake. Once the door blasted open, they were thrown into space like a mean owner throwing their cat into a swimming pool. Once they saw their destination, they kicked their thrusters into high gear and their oxygen counters beeped to notify them that they were now breathing from their air tanks.

Everywhere around them, they noticed the ship bursting flames into space, and that forced them to dodge the orange blasts of heat. Unfortunately, Isaac got way to close with one and his right jet, causing it to short circuit and not work.

"John!" Isaac called out. "Help me out here!"

Carver instinctively wrapped his left arm around Clarke's back and boosted with him in tow. "First names, now?" he chuckled.

Isaac looked away once he felt his cheeks burn with a deep red color.

"What happens when we hit the front of the ship?"

"Look for a ventilation h-hole! We'll have to burst through!"

"Is that even possible?!"

"Would you trust me?!"

"Of course I would, Isaac, but- Ah fuck it."

They found one and Carver put on his thrusters as hard as he could and Isaac diverted more power into his only working one. They screamed as they hit it with full force, tumbling through the hole until they gradually slowed down by rolling across a floor. They grunted and took a moment to catch their breaths before picking themselves up and opening the door in front of them.

"Head to the cockpit!" John yelled. "We gotta launch before it blows!"

"Yeah, I'm going!"

While they made their way farther into the ship, their entire surroundings blinked red with high alert, the entire ship shook violently, and joints sparked with friction. Once they made it into the cockpit, they ran - uh, stumbled, rather, towards the controls. Isaac climbed into the pilot seat while Carver went into the co-pilot seat.

"Let's go, let's go!" John chimed as he moderately tapped the controls in front of him in anticipation.

Isaac paused for a second. "We may just blow up."

"We may just get saved by Aliens again - Just  _hit_  the  **damn button**!"

Isaac then slammed his hand against a red button on the side and once he did, it changed to green and he was pushed back into his chair with incredible g-forces. The front window was all just blue and purple as it appeared that the shockpoint drive seemed to work as they blasted away from the ice cube known as Tau Volantis.

After a couple of moments, the violent thrust seemed to die down as they maintained a constant speed. Isaac hit the auto-pilot button and slumped against the chair and closed his eyes to rest a tiny bit. He realized that he had been holding his breath the entire time, which forced his mouth to burst open with carbon dioxide. His helmet automatically folded into his suit while he panted and he heard Carver do the same. He heard his partner shuffle around and he looked to see him rotate his chair around and stood up to sit on the stairs behind him.

"That chair hasn't been comfortable in over two-hundred years," John complained as he leaned against the wall. Isaac decided to stand up and go join him on the stairs. He sat right beside his partner, resting his head against the cool metal and continued to pant. From the corner of his eye, his partner pressed his right index finger against his left forearm for a couple of seconds, which released the airtight seal of his suit. His urban camo suit hissed as the top split open in half like a jacket. He then grabbed the front to peel it off of his body.

Isaac's eye lingered to the side to witness this and he had to suppress a gasp while he stared at the tan t-shirt that clutched to his sweat-drenched body. Carver's perspiration allowed his partner to see all the features his torso provided. The light behind him gave a perfect focus on his flawless curves and it made Isaac involuntarily water at the mouth, as well as achieve a hard-on. John's facial expression and agape mouth didn't help either.

The engineer had enough. He got up from his place and crawled over John. The soldier was confused while his partner's face came closer and closer to his own. After a few seconds of intense staring, Isaac covered John's lips with his own. the other instantly responded by pushing back against the kiss. His tongue slipped past Clarke's lips and slid against the other muscle as if they were made for each other.

Isaac pressed against his forearm for a couple of seconds until his own suit opened with a hiss. As John ripped the jacket from the other, that "other" in question already shoved his hands up his shirt to feel his chest, contouring the sergeant's well defined abs and pecs. Carver used his brute strength to rip Isaac's shirt in half and proceeded to tenderly nibble at his left nipple. The engineer moaned loudly as this happened and the tent in his pants grew further - if that was even possible.

Clarke practically ripped his pants off showing his pulsating erection. Once the cool air hit the head, he closed his eyes and moaned in pleasure. He didn't realize that the other was stroking himself until he opened them once more. He gulped as he stared at the sheer size of the other's sex organ and all he could think about is the amount of pain he'd feel if that'd enter his body…

John got up quickly and backed the other against a wall nearby. His lips moulded perfectly against the engineer's as they continued to rid of every single piece of clothing until they were **completely**  naked, save for John's dog tags. The soldier eyed a table at the corner of his vision, picked his lover up, and gently laid him down on the table. He placed his index and middle fingers in Isaac's mouth and the other instinctively sucked and licked at them until they were very much coated with saliva.

John then lifted Isaac's legs and slowly inserted them into his anus, in turn receiving a moan from the smaller male. Clarke's hands clenched onto Carver's shoulders as he did this. Unfortunately, he did this tantalizingly slow. Isaac needed more. The engineer needed it to be faster, harder, and...definitely bigger.

"Ah...fucking put it in already!" he shouted at the other. The other in question wore a dark smirk as he slowly retracted his fingers. He spit in his hand and coated his dick in his own saliva and positioned himself close to the tight opening.

"Are you sure...that you...want this?" Carver whispered in his ear. His warm breath brushing past Clarke's ear gave the other goosebumps. All at once, Isaac grabbed the back of his neck and forced his face against his neck as he spoke.

"I want you to fuck me as hard as you can, sergeant," was all that he whispered back.

The sergeant started to passionately kiss the other's neck as he pushed slowly inside; the engineer's scream slowly becoming louder depending to how much of it was in already. Once he was in at the hilt, Isaac's mouth was agape but the only thing that came out was a small cry. His closed eyes began to well up with tears as his anus struggled to adjust to the size of the pulsating shaft. He felt the blood pump against the walls of his butt, making the moment all the more passionate. It also helped that he was feeling the warmth he loved so much; it eased the pain.

"Argh...Shit, Isaac...You're tight..," Carver whispered in his ear. "I'll stay here for a bit to let you adjust." An action that Clarke greatly appreciated.

He felt like he was being split in half, impaled by a javelin spike...but in a good way. It hurt so much, yet the pleasure he got out from it was equal, if not more. Isaac's hands traveled away from John's shoulders and rested on the table below him. The larger found this to be a great opportunity to lock hands with the smaller one, giving him the strength to persevere. Isaac's legs were lowered at this point and gently curled around the other's waist automatically, as if they were made to go there.

After a couple of minutes, Clarke's brilliant blue eyes opened to meet Carver's lustful auburn ones. The bottom nodded, making the tears that were threatening to spill from his eyes to finally do so. John's heart hurt watching him like this, so he bent downwards to lick the salty drops of water off of his partner's epidermis. Isaac's cheeks felt warm as he did this, and then instantly became a furnace when he felt the other move inside him, pulling out 'till the head then pushing back in. The friction made him moan. Loudly.

The soldier started out like this, just thrusting slowly into Isaac...tantalizingly slow. It was so slow that the engineer begged him to speed up after just three thrusts. He did so, accelerating from ten thrusts per minute to, like, a million (It was actually more like forty, but to Isaac, it was a hell of an improvement). For a couple of minutes, Isaac laid there while Carver did all the work. He enjoyed the waves of pleasure spreading throughout his body after every thrust, but he hungered for more. He wanted more. He needed more.

"Faster, maybe?!" Isaac asked in despair.

"You are one needy bitch, aren't you?" John replied.

"Hey! What's tha-aa-aa-aa-ah-ah-ah-AH-AH..!"

He immediately sped up to his maximum velocity, practically ripping him a new one as he violently fucked him with reckless abandon. Carver's hands shifted from the other's hands, to his body. His left hand planted firmly against Isaac's right pec, whereas his right hand pumped away at Isaac's aching member. The lesser male's grunts became louder and louder until he was practically screaming after every thrust, and the discovery of Isaac's prostate didn't help with the noise reduction either.

"Agghh!...Hit th-th-e-e-re a-a-ag-ag-a-a-ain-n-n!" the engineer demanded. The soldier compiled, which earned another scream from him. The more John thrust into his prostate, the more the pain faded away, and the more the pleasure came in to fill the vacancy. He felt it through every nerve in his body, through every clenched fingertip, through every gasp, through every thrust. Noticing this, Carver stop pumping Clarke's penis and placed both his hands at the other's hip for leverage, knowing that stimulation alone would satisfy the other. When the larger male bent down closer to the slighter one, Isaac's hands went up to grip his back, blunt nails making crescent dents in his already scarred epidermis.

After blue met brown in an intense stare, John's lips smashed against Isaac's while he continued to thrust quickly and deeply into him. Their torsos slid across each other's sweat-soaked skin, their tongues played with each other between mouths. Yet, all good - Wait. Scratch that. Great? No... _ **Amazing**_! Yeah, amazing...things must  _come_  to an end, and that too true statement unfortunately caught up with the two. Isaac felt himself reaching climax all too soon (in his opinion), and with the laboured breaths is partner gave, he guessed that he's reaching the end soon too.

"I'm...coming!" John breathed, confirming his thoughts.

"M-m-me t-t-oo-oo-oo!" Isaac gasped.

It  _came_  all too quickly as his member suddenly shot sperm out all over their chests. This action made Clarke's walls clench, which in turn strangled Carver's shaft. Grunting, he finished deep within the engineer, pausing for a moment during the initial spurt, then gradually started to slow down with each thrust afterwards, further filling his rectum with the warm, salty liquid.

John gave one last buck, finally halting when fully sheathed. His top half collapsed onto the exhausted man beneath him, head resting on his shoulder. Isaac's skin broke out into goosebumps again once he felt Carver's warm breath against his neck. They stayed like that for a while, chests inflating and deflating alternatively as if it was choreographed in advance The engineer was surprised when he felt the soldier move. He didn't move at all inside of Isaac, but rather outside. He picked Isaac up off of the table, turned them around, and laid down on top of the table with Isaac resting on top of him.

The smaller male took this as an opportunity to nuzzle his nose into the other's neck, taking in the mixed smell of John and sex. He felt absolutely comfortable and at peace when he shut his eyes, despite the fact that he still had a dick up his ass. The warmth against his entire front side of his body spread throughout every fiber of his being, making him forget that they were in a two-hundred year old spaceship. He felt the pulse in his lover's penis as it slowly became more and more flaccid. Once enough blood was drained, the tightness of Isaac's hole naturally made John's shaft to pop out, freeing the slow flow of semen that seeped out afterwards.

"Thank...you...for that..," he breathed as his hand went up to stroke John's bottom lip, then stroked his soul patch underneath.

"Hey...I'm not...complaining..," he replied, raising a hand to gently ruffle through his sweaty hair. Their lips met once again in a much slower, and much more passionate kiss. Isaac's hand moved out of the way once their chins met, and placed it firmly against the other's left pec, playing with the hardened nipple while moving his thumb in a circular motion.

" _Isaac?_ "

Said person paused and lifted his head to stare into his lover's eyes.

"Did you say anything?" he asked.

"...Nnnno..," John replied.

His eyebrows furrowed, but then that changed once his head was pulled down, courtesy of the bigger man. It made him relax once more. His eyes slid back closed while he enjoyed making out, when the voice sounded again.

" _Isaac?!_ "

Without moving away, he opened his eyes to look at the other. His gaze met closed eyelids as he felt his tongue pushed back into his mouth by another tongue. And that's when he realized that what he was experiencing...might not have been real. He pushed against the other's chest to sit up. His worried blue met with confused brown as his kiss-swollen lips quivered.

"Hey man, what's the matter?" his partner worried. He was about to reply asking  _Is this real?_  when he subconsciously blurted out something completely different.

"Do you l-love me?"

The other was about to answer, and before he heard it, he was pulled out with one last yell.

" _Isaac!_ "

Isaac gasped when he opened his eyes. His sight caught a metallic grey wall. He looked to his right, and a clothed John sat beside him, t-shirt still soaked, and with a worried expression on his face. He looked to his left and saw the table they fucked on...or...what he thought they fucked on. He realized that he was still sitting on the steps and still wearing his suit when he came to a final conclusion.

The sex never happened.

He let out a saddened, and heavy sigh.

"Are you okay?" his partner asked, grabbing the engineer's attention. "I was taking a breather when I heard you grunting and panting with your eyes closed. I thought that you were hallucinating, but looking at you now, it must've been a daydream or something, instead."

Clarke looked away to place his head back on the wall behind him.

"Yeah..," he replied, sadly. "...Must've been…"

He got up and walked to the cockpit, leaning on the pilot's chair. After looking at the navigation to make sure that they were still going the right way, he hung his head low in sadness. That's when he heard another voice.

" _C'mon, Isaac. I need you to come back to me, man._ "

He didn't bother to look back became he knew that this was all in his head. He'd gotten used to the slight echo after each syllable.

" _Don't leave me like everyone else in my life did. Come back so we could get back to Earth. Let's forget about whatever happened out in deep space and let's just get back so...we could start...I dunno, families, maybe._ "

He looked back this time to see the now shirtless John. His eyes landed on a scar (he hadn't notice before) on his chest. It was a small one that stretched diagonally across his left pec. His skin shone brilliantly in the blue and purple light of shockspace, which made Isaac's head turn away automatically as he tried to suppress a tear.

" _I could find someone else - that is, if anyone would really go out with a scar faced asshole in the first place..,_ "

"I want to be with you..," he whispered softly enough for the other not to hear. A single tear escaped his left eyelid this time. It trailed down his sweaty cheek and got trapped in his unkempt beard.

" _You could find Ellie again and you could settle down and just enjoy the slow life. You wouldn't have to worry about the necros anymore. We destroyed the fucking moon that sent out the signals after all._ "

"That's right..," he whispered again. "But I want Ellie to live on without me. You don't have to worry about her anymore."

" _Wow...thinking about all we've been through just makes me smile. Holy fuck it was stressful, but somehow, I find the whole ideal funny. I still don't know how we survived that shit but it might be a sign about...something, anything. Did I ever tell you that I thought that everything happen for a reason? That might be it...as crazy and fucked up as that sounds…_ "

Isaac stood up to stare into the light at the end of the shock tunnel. His tears flowed freely at this point, and he allowed his vision to blur as he continued to listen.

" _I just hope that you waking up will be a thing that happens soon. I'd hate to leave Tau Volantis without you, Isaac._ "

"I'm...not awake?...And...I never left Tau Volantis?"

Then, his surroundings vanished into whiteness and he just stood, by himself, almost being blinded by the brightness of the white void. He then felt an unexplainable force pick him up and slowly brought him upwards. As he looked up, he saw John's face in the distance. He brought his right hand to try and reach out to him. He wanted to caress his face. He wanted to be touched by him. He wanted to be fucked by him. He wanted...to be...loved..by  _him_.

"I love you, John," he confessed.

_oxo_

The next thing he knew is that he was staring at a teal-green mattress and springs underneath it. The grey frame looked old and he felt like it hadn't been cleaned for years. He then felt the cotton surrounding him. It felt like it could've been covers. What he in a bed? He then heard a shaky gasp, and when he looked for the source of it, he realized that it's...John...his partner...kneeling beside his bed.

"Isaac!" he cried as he went in and attack hugged him. He tried to bring him as close to his chest as possible. He heard Carver's strong heartbeat once his ear met his chest. It was extremely soothing and he wanted more of it once he even felt it vibrate against the side of his head.

_...Is it just me or does the warmth feel more...real..?_

"I was so worried!" the other continued. "You were out for a while and I thought that you were a goner after that fall."

He somehow, after all that, had the strength to smile back. "Don't worry," he started. "I feel fine." Then a sting at his back. "Agh...well...save for my back…"

They chuckled quietly for a bit and that's when Isaac felt that from now on, everything was going to be all right.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Ancient Ice, New Flames (interlude)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2787923) by [FionasEmbrace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FionasEmbrace/pseuds/FionasEmbrace)




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